Seal of Healing
by deanine
Summary: It isn't easy being the son of a Hokage-genius or best friend to an Uchiha super-ninja, but Naruto manages. When his best friend makes a mistake that should cost Naruto his life, they get a second chance. Unfortunately, some miracles have conditions. AU
1. Playing Ninja

**Seal of Healing, Binding Seal**

**Note:** I'm not sure how they mark time, dates, years, etc. in the world of Naruto. For simplicity I'm declaring Naruto's birthday October 10, 1980.

**Prologue – Playing Ninjas**

October 15, 1984

Red and brown leaves littered the streets and yards of Konoha like snow drifts, that shifted here and there with the wind. Sloughing through the leaves side by side, a pair of very different boys played the only real game they knew, ninjas. Tan and blond, the blue-eyed boy grinned, kicking leaves out and making crude jutsu hand-signs imitating his father. His friend, pale and dark haired, smiled thinly waiting for Naruto to finish his display, before making his own leaf attack.

"Good one," Naruto said. Both boys picked out a pile of leaves and dove in, pretending to dodge enemy attacks.

When they tired of tunneling through the leaves and using them for cover, Sasuke proposed the next game. He assembled a mound of leaves near a fence and climbed to the top. With a high pitched battle cry he dove off into the pile making hand signs the whole way down.

"Awesome!" Naruto cheered. He immediately started building his own mound of leaves near his favorite climbing tree. Once he deemed the pile sufficiently fluffed to break his fall, Naruto started climbing, but he didn't stop at the height of the fence. There were plenty of good branches within reach and he wanted to make a more dramatic leap than Sasuke. His friend was hard to impress. "Are you watching?" Naruto gave Sasuke two thumbs up.

Sasuke nodded, his mouth slightly open in awe of the height Naruto intended to jump from. The thought passed through his mind that maybe Naruto shouldn't jump from quite so high, but before he could consider voicing such cowardly concerns, Naruto was airborne. A loud cracking sound that didn't remind him of crinkled leaves at all followed his friend's impact then Naruto screamed. Sasuke rushed to his side and scrounged through the leaves finding some much brighter red ones than before, red and wet.

He had never seen Naruto look so pale or scared. His leg bent at an odd angle and Sasuke could see bone pushing out of his skin. "Is it broken?" Sasuke asked, not completely believing what he saw. "I think it's broken." He knew he should run for help, but he froze there, staring at the blood flowing around stark white bone, his friend now only half-conscious from the shock.

"Your friend is hurt. He needs help. Would you like me to help him?"

Sasuke turned toward the voice, glad to have anyone's assistance. "I need to get his mom," Sasuke said. He was about to ask the newcomer to stay with Naruto but his eyes narrowed at his first good look at the stranger. The woman who stood just on the other side of the fence had a bright white pattern branded over her neck and half her face, the mark of a sealed healer. His father warned him about wandering healers and their dangerous seals. _Only accept their help if the other option is death._

"Don't touch him," Sasuke commanded. With a grimace he raced toward the house, his paralysis broken by the healer's intervention.

"Kushina-sama!" Sasuke called, racing toward Naruto's house. "Naruto's hurt!"

The healer sighed and scaled the small fence. She pushed her black hair behind her ears and stroked the suffering blonde's forehead. His friend had rejected her help, but it didn't mean she couldn't offer that help to the boy experiencing the injury. Healing the sick and injured was her job. "That's a bad break, young man. Would you like me to fix it up for you?" she asked.

The boy squinted up at her; a pained smile curved his lips. "I'm not allowed to talk to strangers," he said, "and my mom can heal anything, no problem."

"No problem, eh?" the woman said. She stared down into the small child's bright blue eyes and felt a twinge in her seal, a twinge of recognition. "I know you aren't supposed to talk to strangers, but if we introduce ourselves, we won't be strangers anymore. My name is Sumire. What's yours?"

The boy continued to smile, even as his face went pale and his lips tinged blue from blood loss. "I'm Naruto, Namikaze Naruto."

"Are you sure I can't heal you, young man? It is a very bad break. If someone doesn't intervene soon, you could die."

"He won't be dying." Red hair tied back in a bun, Kushina pushed past the woman crouched over her son. A mother bear, ready to do anything for her injured cub, she glared at the interloper even as she started emergency healing jutsus. "I suggest you remove yourself from this property. You aren't welcome here."

"Of course," Sumire said. "It's my duty to offer help. I apologize for trespassing." Sighing, she leapt back over the fence, but rather than going on her way, she stayed close to make sure the mother would really be able to stabilize the situation. Sumire had a feeling about the tough blonde. Letting him die needlessly would be wasteful.

"All right baby, this is going to hurt, but I have to get you to the hospital. Are you ready?" Kushina asked. Naruto nodded quickly. "That's my brave boy."

Sumire watched the woman sprint away with the speed of a trained shinobi. Little Naruto would live, she could tell before the woman ever took off running. "You will bear watching cub."

* * *

The primary medical entity in a military village, the Konoha hospital was equipped to handle almost anything, except maybe a worried Hokage with an injured toddler. "Is he okay? Just tell me exactly what happened. Is he okay?"

The nurse confronted with her Hokage's questions, found herself blushing and too flustered to explain that she wasn't even working emergencies today and had no idea what his son had managed to skin, burn, scrape, or sprain today. Naruto was a frequent visitor. Most of the hospital staff called the Namikaze heir some combination of fearless, reckless, and under-supervised with the stunts he inevitably pulled. If it wasn't trying to befriend a stray dog that thought he looked like dinner or stealing his dad's kunai or attempting to scale his house, it was some other dangerous dodgy activity. "Sir, I'm working poultices today. Try the nurses' station," she stammered out.

"Right," Minato said. He started throwing the same questions at the ladies grouped behind a counter. "Is he okay?" he asked for the fifth time.

One of the older nurses smiled. "Naruto's going to be fine. He fell out of a tree and fractured his leg. He is working on my nurses, trying to get a bit of ice cream out of this adventure."

Another nurse smiled. "I heard he jumped out of the tree. His friend Sasuke dared him or challenged him or some other little boy nonsense."

Relief warred with exasperation on Minato's face. "What room?"

"Tsunade set him up in room, 309."

Minato didn't need further directions. He headed upstairs and down a white disinfectant smelling hallway. With his right leg encased in a cast and elevated with a sling, his unabashed son enthusiastically devoured a bowl of chocolate ice cream. He didn't seem distressed or to be in any pain. Minato sighed and entered with a stern frown. "Tell me that you didn't jump out of a tree, Naruto. You're four. You know better. Did falling off the roof teach you nothing?"

Naruto had the good sense to look ashamed and set his treat aside. "It wasn't like with the roof. We had piles of leaves to break the fall. Sasuke jumped first and he was fine!"

"If Sasuke jumped off a bridge, would you jump off one too?" Minato began and then grimaced, "Don't bother answering that. I think I already know."

"Sasuke wouldn't jump off a bridge unless he had a safe landing already planned out," Naruto answered stubbornly.

"Safe? Like the pile of leaves today?" Minato asked.

Naruto frowned. "I might have climbed a little too high. It was fine from the top of the fence."

"Your mother and I want to let you discover your limits, but if you keep going at this rate, you're going to break your neck before you figure out that you can't fly and you aren't going to bounce when you hit the ground."

"I know I'm not going to bounce," Naruto muttered under his breath, "but I bet I could fly if I knew the right jutsu."

"You found our little daredevil I see." Kushina joined Minato at Naruto's bedside. She laced her arm into her husband's and matched his frown. "They were playing in the leaves in the back yard, perfectly harmlessly while Mikoto and I had a cup of tea. Somehow they always manage to turn harmless into daring. I should never have left them alone."

"If our little daredevil wants to start at the academy in a year with his best friend, he needs to be able to play in the backyard for an afternoon without grave injury."

Kushina's frown deepened. She wasn't completely onboard with starting Naruto a year early at the academy anyway. His ability to find danger in the most mundane activities had not encouraged her on the subject. "There isn't anything wrong with waiting until he's six. Almost everyone waits until they're six. He'll be more mature then."

"I'm starting with Sasuke!" Naruto shouted. "I'm not waiting until I'm six!"

"We'll see if you can act mature enough to start next year. We'll see how careful you can be between now and then," Minato said with a smirk. "What do you say, you stay out of the hospital for the next six months and we'll seriously consider letting you start with Sasuke next year."

Naruto nodded gravely. "I'll be very careful."

* * *

Sitting on the back porch with his casted leg propped up, Naruto tried to read the book his mother had left him, he just couldn't make himself focus on it. Instead he watched the team of Genin busy clearing the leaves out of the backyard. Two of the young ninja gathered piles together, while their third member incinerated them with a safe, small fire jutsu. The roasting smell made Naruto's stomach rumble with thoughts of marshmallows and campfires. When the Genin team finished they stopped by the porch and asked Naruto to sign their mission scroll. Feeling important, Naruto obliged them with a laboriously drawn signature. "Thanks guys!"

"Any time, honorable son," one Genin said. The three man group raced to jump over the fence and rejoin their Jounin sensei. Naruto imagined himself on a squad with Sasuke and someone else cool like maybe Kiba. They'd be tall and have Hitai-ates and a cool sensei, maybe a Sannin. They'd have way cooler missions than clearing leaves of course. Naruto's smile widened as he envisioned himself slaying giant demon monsters.

His fantasy was interrupted by a new visitor at the fence. She wore simple gray traveling clothes and a pair of worn brown boots. Her black hair fell just past her shoulders. Chestnut brown eyes met his with a smile. Naruto stared at her, barely noticing all the small details of her appearance, instead focusing on the pattern carved in her neck and face. He liked clan markings and tattoos. He sometimes imagined himself with Akimichi swirls or Inuzuka red stripes on his cheeks.

The woman's face marking was pretty cool too, Naruto decided. He waved to her, wordlessly inviting her into his yard, but she shook her head, instead leaning on the fence. "You seem to be feeling much better," she said. "Nice cast."

Naruto frowned at his leg. "I can't do much until it comes off, and Sasuke can't visit. He's grounded."

The woman nodded and took a step back. Before she could wave and make her exit, Naruto started yammering questions at her.

"I don't remember your name from yesterday; what was it? Are you in a ninja clan? I like your clan markings. My dad says I can't have a face tattoo. Do you think I would look great with a face tattoo? It would make me look scary. Ninja need to scare their enemies."

"My name is Sumire, Naruto, and these are not clan markings. I'm a healer. Remember, I offered to heal your leg." She smiled mischievously. "And I think you'd look smashing with some clan tattoos, if you can convince your father that it's wise."

"He thinks we're too flashy with our hair and eyes as it is," Naruto admitted and sighed. "He'll never decide it's a good idea."

"Good luck, kid," Sumire said and with a wave she was walking again. The buzz in her face seal had intensified overnight and she knew it was time to move on, to roam the field. Tingling seals aside, her proximity to the Hokage's son's accident would have everyone on edge. The general feeling that her kind were ill omens was natural, when you considered that they were drawn to death and disasters.

She could feel the gaze of the villagers following her steady trek for the main gates. Usually the menace towards her lacked the palpable venom she felt today. Nothing like a dramatic accident to a beloved leader's child to turn the populace antagonistic, Sumire thought with a resigned sigh.

She couldn't see where he came from or sense any hint that he was coming, but a familiar Jounin appeared at her side, easily matching her steady pace. His silver hair spiked dramatically and a mask covered his lower face. "Are you heading out then, Sumire? Any idea where the road is going to lead you today?"

"I'm sure there is someone who needs my help out there, and, Kakashi, I don't need an escort out of the village." She grinned. "But I appreciate the thought."

A Chuunin arrived more obviously and noisily from a side street and flanked her other side, his grin more visible without a mask. He linked his arm with the healer's familiarly. "Leaving us again. Off to save more deserving, romantic, wounded, tragically handsome young ninjas from certain untimely deaths."

"Yes," she said simply. She stopped to sign out with the gate guard and disengaged from her escort. "Thanks."

Kakashi waved in a nonchalant manner, while Obito waved more vigorously. Whatever anyone else felt about the nomadic healers, Sumire would never come to harm in Konoha when team seven was around. Obito would have died a painful, meaningless death by crushing before finishing puberty if that particular healer hadn't wandered past when she had almost a decade ago.

"Eager for bad luck, Uchiha?" one of the gate Chuunins asked. "I know she saved your life, but the gratitude is misplaced. You realize her proximity is probably the reason you were fatally wounded and needed saving."

Obito turned to Kakashi and frowned. "Did you hear something? I could have sworn I heard a superstitious idiot badmouthing a friend of mine."

"That would be foolish," Kakashi responded. "They'd have to know we wouldn't like that."

The two of them turned away, mentally adding the rude Chuunin to their list of ninjas to be watched and punished quietly at a later date for crimes against themselves or friends of theirs.

* * *

**Author's Note** – When I say AU I mean really odd and different. I'm a bit concerned that Minato and Kushina come across as negligent parents, but this is a shinobi village and kids are expected to start learning to be independent young or die harshly at the age of twelve when they become Genin. I'm open to comments and criticism on the topic. Also, if there was any doubt, Sasuke's mistake mentioned in the summary did not happen in the prologue though the accident is meant to foreshadow.

There will be no Madara Uchiha and no Akatsuki. There will probably be some Orochimaru. The primary antagonist/conflict of the plot centers from the nomadic healers introduced in the prologue.


	2. New Toys for Slightly Older Boys

**Chapter 1 – Ney Toys for Slightly Older Boys**

**May 28, 1992**

As the Hokage, Minato could have made his home anywhere in Konoha. There were centrally located estates, palatial residences aplenty, or trendy apartments. The potential upgrades had not lured his family away from the home they found before the mantle of Hokage came to rest on him. Their two story fixer-upper on the west side, with plenty of trees and huge backyard, suited them just fine. The four bedroom, rambling dwelling was made for a big family, and the Namikazes had planned on filling those bedrooms with little blondes and redheads. Unfortunately, Kushina's first pregnancy had not gone to plan, and while Tsunade had saved both mother and child, more children were not to be.

After twelve years of the whirling dervish they named Naruto, Kushina was still sometimes sad not to have three or four others up to mischief, especially now that her baby was growing up.

"An inch higher," Kushina instructed critically. Her husband adjusted the banner congratulating Naruto on his graduation until it was closer to straight. "Better."

"You're sure?" Minato asked with a crooked smile. She had changed her mind four times on the banner's placement. "You don't think it's bad luck, decorating before he gets his results? He might freeze, flunk thrown weapons or forget who the fourth Hokage is on the written exam."

"As if he's going to forget how to throw a kunai or flub making a Bunshin at the last minute and fail. I taught him kunai when he was four. He would have already been a ninja if he had talked us into letting him graduate early." Kushina frowned at the orange lettered banner.

Before she could ask him to move it again, Minato stepped down and hugged his worrying wife. "He has months of D-ranks in his future before thinking about stepping a toe out of the village. We're not at war, and I swear he won't be going on any missions within a hundred kilometers of Iwa until he's able to mop the floor with a Sannin or two."

"I know I'm being unreasonably ridiculous," Kushina said. "We were Genin in a war, and we survived. He has our superior genetics. Nothing can go wrong."

Minato didn't argue with the platitude or the inherent lie. Parents of young shinobi had to lie to themselves on a daily basis or they wouldn't be able to function. "He's prepared. The Academy did its job. We did our job and we'll keep doing our job until he's near-indestructible. Not to mention the extra training his Jounin instructor will provide."

"And have you considered who that instructor might be?" Kushina asked with a quirk of her eyebrow.

Minato shrugged, knowing this was dangerous ground to walk with any mother, not just Kushina. Their Jounin instructor would in most cases shape the fundamental core of a ninja. Their most intimate instructor of the basics, this was a crucial decision. "Iruka and I will work that out after we see which students actually pass and what we have to work with."

"You're not telling me you haven't even thought about it," Kushina said, her tone becoming clipped. "I mean, there are only so many credentialed Jounin available. What's your short list?"

"Kurenai and Asuma are available. Kakashi is a good choice. I taught him myself. He's a genius." Minato advocated his student, taking a risk and hoping for the best.

"He's a pervert!" Kushina announced as though it made him incompetent to handle children, and maybe it did to your average mother.

"But he isn't a super prevent like the man who trained me, and I turned out fine. Kakashi has a lot of knowledge to impart to the next generation." Minato recognized the flinty glint coming into Kushina's eye and wished he had just agreed with her pervert veto.

"Oh, he has a lot of knowledge, not all of it appropriate for the next generation. From what I've seen of his teaching style, he knows how to befuddle and flunk poor desperate children. If you assign Naruto and his team to Kakashi and by some miracle the lazy pervert passes them, they'll be his first REAL squad, his guinea pigs. Yes, he's an elite Jounin, but who knows how elite he is as an instructor."

"So you've thought about this a bit," Minato said. Knowing how dangerous the next logical question was, he couldn't see a way around asking it. "Do you have a suggestion?"

"I'm a Jounin," Kushina said with a smile. "A very good Jounin."

Only years in the Hokage's office fielding outrageous and sometimes random demands allowed Minato to preserve his calm façade. Was she serious? Naruto would murder him for even considering it. "You're an excellent Jounin, except, protocol doesn't allow direct family to supervise each other. You know the rules and why they're there. You really want to be Naruto's Jounin instructor?" Instead of bristling, Kushina's smile widened and she kissed her husband on the cheek. She stood back and waited for him to connect the dots. "You were kidding. Of course you were kidding."

"Mostly kidding. I wouldn't mind being an instructor, but not Naruto's. He'd kill us both. Is it too late to put my name in the hat for a squad this class?"

"I guess it all depends on how many kids pass." Minato mentally calculated the odds that Kushina would be needed to teach, resolving to do his best to assign her a squad. He could understand her desire to keep busy and distracted. "Do you think they've started the exams?"

"I expect so," Kushina said with a glance at the wall clock. "You should probably be off to work yourself, before they come looking for you. I can handle the rest of the decorations."

* * *

"All right class, listen up," Iruka called. "Congratulations to everyone who passed. Get out of here and have fun tonight. Tomorrow morning you meet your Jounin instructors." He waited for the celebratory group to make their noisy exit before turning to the remaining students. "Those of you who failed, tomorrow is a new day. If you're over thirteen please stay behind, but the rest of you are free to go."

Once the smaller group of less enthusiastic students were gone, Iruka turned to the older students.

"Okay, one at a time we're going to meet and discuss your futures. Kenichi, you're first."

Naruto stood beside Sasuke just outside their old classroom, both proudly sporting Konoha forehead protectors. He looked over his shoulder at the students who had flunked and were probably being exited from the shinobi system. "I feel bad for those guys," Naruto said with a sigh. "Can you imagine not getting a chance to be a ninja?"

"You'd feel worse for them if they got themselves killed trying to be ninjas," Sasuke said with a roll of his eyes. Sasuke's mom arrived at the periphery of the milling students and the two friends separated. The Uchiha waved over his shoulder.

"See you tomorrow," Naruto called. He waved to Mikoto-sama, hoping she noticed the new adornment on his forehead. One at a time, his friends exited the schoolyard with their parents. The last to leave being the Naras, not that Shikamaru seemed distressed over having to cloud watch a few minutes until his dad arrived. Naruto knew his parents were busy people and that the Hokage wouldn't necessarily show up to congratulate him in the schoolyard just because it was a tradition. He had walked himself home before. It wasn't a big deal. He wasn't even considering throwing the special Kunai his father gave him for emergencies, not seriously anyway.

Iruka stepped outside with the last of the older students who had failed. Once the dejected kid had begun his disappointed trek home, the teacher turned to Naruto. "Why aren't you home yet? Would you like some company walking home? I bet your dad's swamped at the tower."

"That's okay Iruka-sensei." Naruto pointed to the sliver of a white mask around the corner of a nearby building. "Dad still has an Anbu trailing me since the last minor prank incident, so no need to escort me."

"I wasn't proposing escort duty. Come on, let's walk." Iruka stepped off the curb and pulled Naruto with him. "The Academy won't be the same without you and your friends."

"Prank quality is bound to suffer," Naruto agreed. "But there is some hope a couple of years back. Sarutobi has some original ideas."

"I'll be sure to keep an eye on him." Iruka noticed that Naruto didn't seem quite as exuberant as usual. He smiled brightly, attempting to perk the blond up. "I guess you're pretty excited, graduating and in the top five of the class."

"Eh, Dad's a genius who graduated when he was ten at the top of his class, and no one else was even close. Graduating was expected, top five is not impressive." Graduating top five hadn't even warranted a personal appearance at the schoolyard. "No worries though, I'll still be a kick-ass ninja, just you wait and see."

"I believe you. And Naruto, top five in that class is impressive. It's an unusually strong group." Stopping at a fork in the road, Iruka ruffled Naruto's hair. "This is my turn."

"Thanks Iruka-sensei. See you tomorrow!" He ran down the road that would lead him home, considering a detour to the Hokage tower or to Ichiraku's, but Iruka had ushered him practically to his doorstep and he decided to at least stop at home first to get a good look at his new forehead protector and decide how he wanted to wear it. Both his parents had gone with the traditional, predictable forehead-protector-on-forehead style, but Naruto thought maybe it was time to start breaking his parents' mold. Everyone was always comparing him to his father as he resembled him so strongly. They expected him to be a genius and amazing. He'd had to work his butt off to manage above average.

Naruto threw the front door open, unsure whether his mother would even be home and received a mild shock at the state of the house. A nice orange banner cheerfully congratulated him on his graduation. Streamers and some odd party hats adorned various surfaces. Naruto could hear banging in the kitchen and headed that way. Instead of his mother, a team of Genin were working at making his favorites. A young man with very bushy eyebrows was attempting Ramen noodles. He wore one of Kushina's frilly pink aprons to protect his green spandex unitard from the sticky twirling wad of hopeless dough. A girl who favored two hair buns pulled a fluffy cake out of the oven, orange flavored if the smell were to be trusted. While their third teammate, a Hyuuga by his appearance, seemed to be attempting to make the streamers stick to the wall in a festive, swirled manner.

"Hey!" Naruto greeted them. He adjusted his Hitai-ate and grinned. "I'm Naruto. Are you guys on a D-Rank mission?"

The Hyuuga didn't bother to answer, but the boy in spandex nodded the affirmative. "Yes, honorable son. Our team is here to prepare your celebratory dinner as your parents were called away unexpectedly. I'm Rock Lee, and these are my teammates TenTen and Neji."

"Pleased to meet you," Naruto said easily. He scampered into the pantry and returned with a clean blue apron, his dad's. "You're destroying the ramen. Let me." Naruto kicked a step stool to the counter so he could work over it comfortably and began expertly flouring and twirling the dough to make long clean noodles. "I make these with my mom all the time," he explained simply once there was a nice sized mound of pasta. "You guys need me to sign your mission scroll?"

* * *

The sun had just broken over the horizon, when Minato signed the gate log for himself and Kushina as they returned to the village, a half dozen Anbu escorts just behind them. Diplomatic emergencies were not a daily occurrence, thankfully, but this latest crisis had been unusually poorly timed. He had been forced to ask Sarutobi to assist Iruka in selecting Jounin instructors for the graduating class. Worst of all, they'd missed Naruto's graduation entirely, and he didn't fool himself into thinking that a Genin team preparing dinner made up for that absence.

Kushina looked tired and equally frustrated. "Can't we just kill the Daimyo and his wife the next time they create an international incident with that feral beast she calls a pet?"

"I'm willing to consider it," Minato said.

Their home was remarkably clean, considering that the Genin team's assignment had only been to prepare the meal of homemade ramen and orange cake. Naruto had taken some initiative and cleaned up the decorations and kitchen too. The left over cake had been sealed in the cake tray, and Kushina found a note on the fridge, secured with Naruto's favorite orange slice magnet.

_Mom and Dad, _

_Gone to Sasuke's after dinner. See you tomorrow, I hope. _

_Thanks for the ramen!_

_Naruto _

Kushina stared at the note listlessly. "We're terrible parents. He'd be better off being raised by wolves."

"Seriously." Minato shook his head. "Could a wolf teach him to throw a Kunai? They don't even have thumbs. Naruto understands about politics and what being Hokage sometimes entails. That is not an angry note."

"I guess not." Kushina yawned dramatically. She nabbed a pen from the drawer and put a new note on the fridge hastily.

_Naruto,_

_So sorry for missing your big day. If you're reading this, we're napping. Come show us your Hitai-ate anyway._

_Love,_

_Mom and Dad_

She secured the note with a tomato shaped fridge magnet, a second signature in itself. Minato used the avocado magnet when leaving notes. "To bed?"

"For a bit," Minato agreed.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

The first two reviews to the prologue basically said, I was insane and the level of supervision Naruto received was beyond inadequate. If the first two reviewers felt that strongly about the direction, I decided to make some minor changes to the verbage/tone in the opening. Subsequent readers seemed less disturbed, so I assume the adjustments were helpful. Naruto as a universe has really bizarre child care, child welfare standards. You've got six year olds being trained to kill in a ninja academy. It isn't a warm, protected lifestyle by any stretch of the imagination. Coddling and protecting a child that you expect to be battle ready by twelve would be counterproductive to survival (in my opinion).

The pace of the story starts at a brisk walk and eventually heats up. Graduation is a Naruto fanfic tradition that I'm visiting but in my own way. I see no need to dwell on things that have been written before and probably better than I could manage them. Instead, this fic will meander around other areas. I focus on character development over long battle sequences.

If I wasn't clear in the opening, Naruto is not a Jinchuuriki. They don't exist in this fic.

Oh, and I don't have a Naruto fandom beta reader, but would love to find one. Message me if you're available and think this is a fic you'd be interested in working with.


	3. Sensei

**Chapter 2 – Sensei**

"I'm so excited. What if we're on the same team? Who would our third team member be? Which Jounin would we get? Or what if we aren't on the same team? You were top of the class, so tradition says you should be paired with the dead last. Who was the dead last? Do we know the dead last? Maybe I can be the third to you and the underachiever?" Naruto rambled breathlessly as he and Sasuke dressed for their first full day as Genin. Naruto wore a simple training jumpsuit with orange panel accents. Sasuke favored a less eye-catching blue and white, with an Uchiha symbol on the back.

Sasuke tied his forehead protector on and smirked at his blond friend. "Take a breath. We'll be fine whether we end up on the same squad or not. These teams are just how we start. Whoever we end up with will be the two people we get to weed gardens with and paint houses with and possibly go on a few escort missions with. Then we'll become Chuunin and we'll go our separate ways for the most part."

"You're right. There's no use worrying about it I guess." Naruto tied his Hitai-ate to his bicep and surveyed the effect. He had already tied the light armor to his thigh, his waist, and even tried it like an odd lopsided jockstrap, a look that had actually made the imperturbable Sasuke laugh out loud.

"It looks better on your forehead, keeping those crazy bangs out of your eyes. You'll see better and fight better with it on your forehead."

As usual, Naruto couldn't fault Sasuke's logic. He returned the forehead protector to its most predictable location and smiled faintly. "It makes me look more like my dad this way."

Sasuke shrugged. "Don't worry, the resemblance is only superficial. The enemy ninja will realize you aren't the Yellow Flash when they fight you and you don't destroy them in less than thirty seconds."

"Thanks a lot." Naruto playfully punched his friend on the shoulder as they dashed off to the academy.

* * *

Haruno Sakura sat straight in her chair, nervous and confident and hopeful. Her best friend Ino showed no signs of nervousness as she berated Shikamaru for carelessly propping his dirty feet on a chair so that anyone who came along and sat there was bound to get soiled.

"Ninja get dirty, Ino," Chouji said since Shikamaru seemed too bored to bother defending himself.

"Especially if they aren't paying attention to their surroundings," Shikamaru added under his breath.

"Tradition." Ino turned to Sakura with a huff. "You realize that I'm going to have to put up with those two as teammates almost definitely. Our families have worked together for three generations. They held me back a year starting at the academy just so the three of us would go through together. My future is hopelessly decided."

"Annoying tradition," Sakura agreed without conviction. She wished that she had three generations of ninja legacy to complain about. Her parents remained flabbergasted that their daughter didn't want to study at a real school and have a real profession like engineering or architecture. Just that morning, her mother had sniffed and blamed herself for taking the Konoha mechanical engineering contract all those years ago that had resulted in raising her only child among crazy shinobi. Her parents were scientists, craftsmen, and they didn't like to think about wooly things like Jutsu and Chakra. At least her father seemed to sort of understand. After announcing her graduation, she took his genial pat on the head as acceptance.

Two inseparable, yet opposite boys burst into the classroom one after the other. Sasuke, dark and pale, the class's undisputed genius led the way. Naruto, loud, blond, and tan, arrived with a dramatic wave and greeting to his classmates. "We're here, bring on the Jounin instructors."

Every girl in the room turned to stare at the pair. Some were attracted to the loud blond and his family connections. Others idealized the quiet genius at his side. None were unaffected by the pair. The current scandalous rumor around class had the two boys in love with each other and forever off the market to the female population. Sakura didn't think the two friends were in love. Twelve year old boys didn't even think about love properly according to her mother. It took them a couple more years to really notice the opposite sex. For herself, Sakura hadn't decided which boy most appealed to her. She didn't know them yet.

Secretly she imagined being sorted onto a team with an appealing boy like Naruto or Sasuke, becoming friends, and eventually the boy would fall hopelessly in love with her. She had read the scenario in eight different novels. There had to be a grain of truth in the recurring plot.

Ino wasn't conflicted about the two boys. She stood and waved. "Naruto, there's an open seat here." While the two friends made their way to the open seats, Ino whispered to Sakura hopelessly. "You're so lucky. You could be sorted into any team at all."

"Definitely lucky," Sakura said, for the first time mostly agreeing with Ino. Secretly she worried that she was going to land on a team with dog breath, Kiba, or bug-boy, Shino, either of which she did not want to fall in love with her. But by her earlier logic, love was a risk between teammates. If they did fall for her, she wasn't sure how to handle unrequited affection from a boy.

Naruto brushed the dirt off the seat next to Ino and settled in, taking time to talk to everyone around him who was conscious. Shikamaru had drifted back to sleep moments after Ino had stopped berating him.

"Quiet down," Iruka commanded from the front of the room. He held a simple stack of lined notebook paper, their future, in his hands. "After your team assignments, please wait here for your sensei. Team one, Urashima Mei..."

Sakura let the parade of names wash over her waiting for her own name to be called. She was obliged at team six, "...Haruno Sakura, Aburame Shino..." her heart sank, awaiting Iruka's next pronouncement, "Namikaze Naruto, Jounin Hatake Kakashi." _Score one hottie!_ inner Sakura celebrated. She glanced right, but Naruto wasn't exactly celebrating. He caught her looking and smiled, some enthusiasm shining through.

Sasuke was shuffled in with Hinata and Kiba, and Ino received her expected team.

"I have dibs," Ino whispered quickly to Sakura. "On Naruto, acknowledge that I have dibs. We're friends and I've been trying to get his attention since forever."

"He's not the last pineapple flavored popsicle, he's a boy. You can't dibs him." An obstinate glint came into her eyes and she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Don't pick a fight with a ninja, forehead girl," Ino said ominously.

"We're both ninja," Sakura said with more confidence than she felt.

* * *

Naruto listened with interest as his classmates were sorted into threesomes and assigned instructors. He tried to figure the logic of teaming each group up and he could imagine reasoning for most easily. He even knew most of the Jounin being named. When they announced his team, the pink-haired brain and Shino, Naruto just held back from vocally protesting. Where was the logic in that team? Who was he going to spar with? Shino was decent at Taijutsu and his ninja bugs were interesting in a creepy way, but Sakura was a brain without a ninja family or any other distinguishing skill that he knew of. Now that they were Genin, there wouldn't be many written tests.

To his left, Sasuke groaned so low that someone who didn't know him well might have missed it altogether. Naruto looked at his friend, realizing he had zoned out for all of team seven's announcement. "What's wrong?" Naruto whispered.

"My Jounin," Sasuke replied after a moment, as though Naruto should understand.

"I wasn't listening." Naruto winced internally, knowing that zoning out wasn't a good tendency in his chosen profession. Sasuke's look of disdain had him blushing with embarrassment. "Who is your Jounin then?"

"Your mother," Sasuke whispered back.

"Seriously?" He couldn't help laughing softly at his friend's discomfiture. His mother and Sasuke had a contentious relationship. She blamed his best friend for most of the scrapes he got himself into, and had been trying to encourage less dangerous (boring) friendships in him since he was three. Naruto turned back to Iruka who seemed to be finishing up.

"Good luck fellow Shinobi. It was a privilege and an honor to teach you."

Jounin appeared one after another immediately following Iruka's farewell. Kakashi poked his head in among the first few, and Naruto was forced to leave Sasuke to stew on his situation alone. Following the silver-haired, masked man, Naruto felt his enthusiasm rebuilding. No, he hadn't drawn a perfect squad, but he had an elite Jounin sensei who knew tons of jutsu. Sure he never actually passed a squad to active duty in his years accepting students, but that was just the ten or so teams. He was due to pass a squad, and Naruto had no intention of failing.

"All right, keep up with me." Kakashi leapt to the nearest rooftop and began a steady run toward the closest training grounds. As fast as they were going, Naruto was glad the training grounds weren't far, but their morning jog didn't stop amongst the first set of training logs they passed. The man kept going, cutting through groves of trees all the way to the outer wall, where he began to follow the curve of the city's boundary, neither speeding nor slowing.

He didn't actually want to lose them, did he? Naruto thought. He had to push hard with his much shorter to legs to keep their Sensei in sight. Just ahead of him, Shino seemed to be slowing a step as well. And Sakura, well he could still hear her gasping and trying to keep up behind them.

* * *

Every team had been collected within the first two hours of being assigned, all but one. Sasuke, Kiba, and Hinata waited in various states of dismay for their Sensei. Hinata had cautiously tried to speak with her teammates when the last of the others had left with Sarutobi Asuma, but between Kiba's agitated pacing and Sasuke's steady glare at the door, the words never made it to her lips. Things could not have turned out worse for her, Hinata thought dejectedly. Unable to even talk to the boys she had been selected to work with, how were they ever going to function as a team?

The door banged open and a cranky-looking redhead stepped to the front of the room. Rather than a Jounin uniform, she wore a simple, pale green gi. The Uzumaki clan swirl adorned the back and a black belt held the ensemble together. Sasuke was unpleasantly reminded that his Sensei was a foreigner.

"You three, follow me to the roof," Kushina ordered.

"Hai Sensei." Hinata spoke quickly before Kiba could articulate the displeasure he had been muttering for the last hour. Their Sensei disappeared in swish of smoke.

Kushina took the forty five seconds her team gave her to try and compose a reasonable introduction. She had decided only a day earlier to take on a set of students. What with their emergency diplomatic endeavor, she hadn't had a chance to properly prepare for the moment. Sarutobi and Umino had saddled her with three proud clan children to boot.

Sasuke, Kiba, and Hinata skidded to a stop in front of her, all three obviously eager to begin, but Kiba was the only one to voice what they all had to be thinking.

"We waited for hours. Where were you?"

Kushina glared at the Inuzuka just long enough to make him pause then smiled brightly. "I was busy sleeping, and I'd still be sleeping if the third Hokage hadn't woken me to let me know about you three. If you'd known you could all have gotten a nap too. Ah well, missed opportunities.

"As you've indubitably guessed, I'm Namikaze Kushina, your Jounin for at least a day or two. As you're all from clans, I'm sure you're aware of the next test. Before we get down to the business of that, please introduce yourselves, if not to me, then to each other. Sasuke and I are acquainted." She shot the Uchiha a smirk and pointed to Hinata. "Get us started Hyuuga."

* * *

Sitting quietly up in a tree, Kakashi turned the page of his novel. He had been waiting for his new Genins for nearly an hour now. He hadn't actually expected them to be able to keep up for an endurance sprint, but how they found him would be their first test. He had no intention of going easy on this group just because he had been assigned Sensei's son. If anything, he expected more of Naruto and by extension his team.

With no attempt at stealth, the three Genin arrived together. Naruto had the kunoichi on his back and Shino led the way. "You're sure your bugs aren't lost?" Naruto asked. "We've been on this shortcut forever."

Shino's only answer was to point up at Kakashi and his bright, orange-covered book. "Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto called. "What's the big idea, running off? Sakura sprained her knee."

"How unfortunate," Kakashi said. He stowed his book and leapt down. "Set her down and let me have a look."

Looking embarrassed, Sakura presented her swollen right knee. "There was a hole," she explained. "I was trying to keep up."

"There will be holes and long sprints, and far more difficult things ahead. Does anyone here know any first aid jutsu? If you're on a mission and a teammate sprains their knee, what do you do?"

"It depends on the mission, the situation. Naruto carried me," Sakura said. "Some missions might have required them leaving me. Without a medic your options are limited."

A book perfect answer, Kakashi thought with an internal grimace, without any sign that she understands what leaving a team member behind in most situations means. "You will need a trip to the hospital. Are you in much pain?"

"Now that we're not moving, I'm fine. It can wait." Sakura tried to project toughness.

"Time for introductions then, tell us your hopes, dreams, likes, dislikes, plans for the future," Kakashi smiled, his eyes squinting together. "Naruto, why don't you get us started?"

_We all know each other and I know you_, Naruto wanted to grouse, but open insubordination in his first team meeting didn't seem like the wisest course of action, so the still-winded Genin took a seat next to Sakura and introduced himself. "Namikaze Naruto, I like homemade ramen and ramen from Ichiraku. I dislike boring, time-consuming administrative jobs. I hope to learn a ton of awesome jutsu, be recognized as a kick-ass ninja, and go on a lot of exciting missions." He smiled brightly at Kakashi.

"You're next, knee-girl," Kakashi said.

"Sakura," she corrected, "Haruno Sakura, I like reading and studying and..." she trailed away, resolutely not looking at the boy who had just carried her halfway around Konoha. "I want to be a great ninja and..." Sakura couldn't bring herself to come out and say that she wanted to fall in love, grand romantic love and live happily ever after eventually. It was girly and silly and not a serious ninja thing to say, so she swallowed her primary dream and moved on. "I dislike people who think others without a ninja clan can't be great ninja. " She glanced apologetically at Shino. "And bugs might make me a little nervous."

Shino accepted her admission with a slight inclination of his head, and without waiting for direction, he continued the introductions. "Aburame Shino, I like my new beetle colony, and being a Shinobi. My aspirations are simple, to prosper and allow my hives to prosper, to defend my village and the hives ensconced there. I dislike ignorance in all forms."

"Are you going to introduce yourself, Sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Of course, I'm Hatake Kakashi, my likes and dislikes are none of your concern and my dreams for the future would simply bore you." His eyes squinted again in smile. "Now we should discuss your Genin test."

Naruto and Shino exchanged knowing looks, but Sakura just frowned. "We already graduated," she informed him.

"That's just the first test," Naruto said. "The Jounin give a second test in the first couple of days with a team and if we fail a fate worse than death awaits us."

"Kakashi-sensei will send us back to the academy," Shino supplied.

"Your teammates are correct." Kakashi's expression sobered. "The pass rate for the second exam is only thirty three percent. My personal pass rate to date is zero. Tomorrow's exam will not be easy. Meet me at six hundred hours, training ground three."

Kakashi raised his hand in silent farewell and made his exit. Overall it wasn't a bad beginning for the group. They had made it to the introductions without leaving a teammate behind, and it had only taken them an extra hour to locate him. Their self-professed dreams and aspirations were more concerning. Sakura was silly and immature and everything she left unsaid made him worry that she didn't understand what being a Shinobi actually meant. Growing up in Sensei's home, Naruto had to have some understanding of the dangers of his dream, but he acknowledged no fear or misgivings about the dangerous missions he craved. Shino had the most realistic outlook of the group, but that particular kid, like all Aburame, was difficult to read.

"We should take Sakura to the hospital," Shino said in a quiet deadpan.

"Definitely," Naruto agreed. He carefully lifted Sakura again, piggyback style. "And then we should get some ramen and talk strategy for tomorrow."

Shino led the way, a contemplative frown creasing his brow. "I've had a thought," he offered. "Something tangible we should try to do before tomorrow."

"What is it?" Naruto asked. "Is it some form of training?"

"Information gathering actually. We know that our Jounin fails all his Genin squads. We need to find out why before we make the same mistakes that they did."

"How exactly are we supposed to do that?" Sakura asked. "Are you going to ask Kakashi-sensei to tell you about it?"

"No, but we should ask the Genin he failed if we can find them," Shino said.

* * *

Kushina surveyed her students, arms crossed over her chest. "Your test starts now. You have two objectives. Select a leader for the duration of the mission. Protect your cargo." She tossed each Genin a single bell. "Rules state: Don't leave the village. No hiding the cargo off your person in the village. Don't swallow the cargo. I'll give you a ten minute head start. This test ends at dawn or when you've lost all three bells."

The three Genin took no time to talk, instead running for the nearest cover, each of them jingling as they ran. "We have to muffle these bells," Sasuke said, skidding to a halt under the cover of some brush.

"And select a leader," Kiba growled. "I nominate myself."

"Are you serious, dead last? Consider yourself vetoed," Sasuke snapped. "We need to deal with the jingling bells giving away our location. I'll lead. It's obvious. I was the top ranked ninja in the class."

Hinata froze, watching the boys argue. She could speak up and break the deadlock. Her vote would decide the issue succinctly. Their time was ticking away while the issue of leader was argued. What would her father say if she were sent back to the academy? The situation didn't bear thinking on.

"Sasuke will be leader," Hinata declared. Both boys jumped back as though she'd slapped them. "Now how are we going to muffle the bells?"

Sasuke smiled smugly, and though he obviously didn't like it, Kiba nodded. "There will be a Jounin stalking us in about eight minutes, so we need a strategy," Sasuke said. "If we stuff some fabric in the bells so the ringers can't jingle, we regain the possibility of silent movement."

"That does nothing to address the redhead about to attack us," Kiba said.

"We could scatter. Go to ground. Evade the enemy until dawn and we win. It isn't flashy, but I think it's our best shot," Sasuke proposed.

Busily shoving bits of fabric shredded from his shirt into his bell, Kiba grumbled, "I don't like running away from an enemy."

"Can you think of a better plan?" Sasuke asked. He gave Kiba several valuable seconds to propose another strategy. "Fine. We scatter and meet back at the main gates after dawn if we're able. Agreed?"

The other two Genin nodded, and then all three were running in near silence, trying to get some distance from their sensei.

* * *

Naruto spread a scroll with a list of names in front of his two teammates. "I had to swear to the records secretary, Kiku-sama, that the information was for my dad, but he gave it up. Fortunately the names of ninja on failed Genin squads aren't classified or it might have been more difficult."

"Are these addresses accurate?" Sakura asked.

"I hope so," Naruto said. "You guys want to split up and each of us question a third of these if we can find them?"

"Agreed," Shino said. "But don't search into the night. Sleep and eat so that you're ready for the test tomorrow. We'll meet at 400 hours for breakfast and to discuss what we found. Agreed?"

"Totally!" Naruto exclaimed. He carefully ripped the scroll into three equal pieces. Sakura nodded and accepted her names on the list.

Shino smirked to himself as their kunoichi tried to talk Naruto into doing the interviews as a pair in case her knee started bothering her again. The blonde assented with a frown and a scratch to his head.

"Fine, but if your knee doesn't feel right, we should take you back to the hospital before the test tomorrow," Naruto said with more than a touch of confusion.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Q: Why doesn't Naruto know about Kakashi's testing proclivities, shouldn't he have that info from his dad?

A: There is an implied taboo regarding the bandying of Genin testing methods. I couldn't find a smooth way to state the taboo in conversation or in anyone's thoughts. Leaving it implied is subtle, but hopefully works well enough.

Characterization note: Hinata is still shy and introverted, but I dumped the scenario that resulted in her mother's death and hope that's sufficient justification to give her a touch more backbone and resilience right from the get go. Besides that, reading her stutter is one of the reasons I avoid Hinata in the fandom. Writing her stutter is not something I'm prepared to do.

While there was a nod to the Naruto/Sasuke slash community early in the chapter, the story isn't slated to be a slash story. No pairs are decided. Fanfic is organic and if this story wanders where I'm planning, romantic love and betrayal will play a role.

Finally, to anyone who was subjected to my accidental substitution of chapter one with the prologue for about a day. It was careless and I'm terribly embarrassed about it. Apologies.

NOTE: The chapter was beta read by Chelsea and lightning fast. Kudos and thanks are owed!


	4. Quiet, Testing in Progress

**Chapter 3 – Quiet, Testing in Progress**

Sakura opened her bedroom door quietly and stole downstairs. She took quick survey of herself in the hall mirror. Her new red kunoichi dress complimented her unique hair and managed to flatter her insubstantial figure. She had positioned her hitai-ate as a hair tie both because it framed her face in a flattering manner, and she refused to draw extra attention to her gigantic forehead. More quickly she reviewed her practical accompaniments, kunai pouch and some money. Once satisfied that she was sufficiently prepared to meet up with her squad, she slipped out the front door.

Halfway across the lawn, she spotted a light on in her father's work-shed. He tended to work odd hours when under a deadline and the space outside the house helped keep harmony as he wasn't waking everyone up by banging around. _When had he taken on a new project?_ Sakura wondered. She checked her watch to make sure a short detour wouldn't run her late, and she tapped on her dad's door.

A middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair opened the door, his spectacles riding low on his nose. He smiled at his daughter and ushered her inside. "Good morning, cherry blossom. What are you doing out and about at this ungodly hour?"

"I have a mission today," Sakura replied. She hadn't told her parts about the second part of her exam as they had been so unsupportive of her graduation. "What are you doing up? Did you take a new job that I missed?"

"No, no new jobs, just working on an old project. Before we left the university in Crater City, I drew the plans for a house, for your mother, an engagement present." He gestured Sakura over to look at the professionally lined rolls of old drafting paper. "We never built it of course, but we could now. We have the money."

"There isn't anywhere in the walls of Konoha where this big rambling thing would fit. It's a country house." Sakura traced the line marking the deck and couldn't help smiling. It was an elegant house, and she was proud of her dad for being an old romantic and not only drawing the house for his fiancé, but keeping the plans, treasuring them even if he never built it.

"There are a lot of places to build outside Crater City, and if we moved there you could go to the university." Her father let his statement stand for several seconds as though he was waiting for her to agree with him. He took her silence as indecision. "You're a brilliant girl, and there are so many things you could do. I'm worried that you haven't considered that there are things you can do that aren't being a ninja." He set his drafting pencil aside and ran a hand through his already disheveled hair.

"It's our fault, your mother and mine, oblivious to everything but our work. We just sent you to the school in the village, and you did well. We assumed we had time to show you other things. I had no idea ninja graduated at twelve, that this village would consider you an adult at twelve. You're _twelve_. That isn't an adult. Your mother and I didn't finish professional schooling until we were almost thirty.

"It can't be too late to go and see, can it? Wouldn't you like to visit Crater City and the university, take some more challenging classes than thrown weapons and Jutsu 101?"

Sakura backed away from her dad, unaccustomed to this type of display from him. "You didn't even realize that ninja graduate at twelve?" He thought she was playing a ninja game, that her profession wasn't important. She couldn't find words to enunciate how ashamed he had made her feel. Neither of her parents got it. Neither knew anything about her education or life to date, not really. They'd been too busy to notice until the day she came home with a hitai-ate and told them her academy education was over. "You know, Dad, some graduate before twelve. I guess it could be worse, right?"

"Cherry blossom, don't be angry," her dad pleaded. "I just want to give you options, options that are safer and would use your talented mind."

"Thanks for that and all, but I'm a Leaf Ninja, graduated and everything. I can't go to Crater City with you, not unless I requested leave to visit from the Hokage. Leaving would make me a missing-nin and some ANBU would come kill me." Her father visibly paled and he sank into his drafting chair. "Pay attention, I know you're accustomed to tuning out when I speak, but this village is a military entity that I became a part of yesterday. Stop treating me like a child. And don't call me cherry blossom anymore."

Sakura slammed the door to her father's work-shed and ran toward the Aburame clan's walls and her team meeting.

* * *

It was the morning of his Genin test when Naruto finally encountered a parent. Sitting casually in the kitchen, his father waited with two plates of eggs still warm from their scrambling as though he knew the moment his son would hit the bottom step and had timed the preparation perfectly. For his part, Naruto didn't seem surprised and he smiled, showing no outward sign that he was annoyed at his parents' absence the day before.

"Good morning, kid." His father noted the proudly worn forehead protector and made to ruffle his son's spiky blond locks, but Naruto dodged the gesture while taking his seat. _Too old to allow voluntary hair ruffling_, Minato noted silently. _Or maybe he's just mad at me?_

"Thanks for the eggs, Dad. The dinner was a nice surprise too. I thought Mom would be here. Is she already off testing her Genin then?" Naruto couldn't help the note of accusation in the last question. Having his mom teaching a squad from his class was potentially embarrassing enough that he should have been given warning and a chance to protest.

"She's been testing her squad all night. I'm expecting her home anytime," Minato said. "Are you happy with your team?"

Naruto sighed and shrugged. "I think we'll be okay. It isn't how I'd have teamed myself up, but whatever. Hopefully, Kakashi-sensei won't fail us today. He knows tons of Jutsu and having him for my Jounin would be worth putting up with the pinky. She's so weird."

Minato grinned and leaned forward. "Kakashi is tough. I'm glad you think you'll survive though. Now, is there a reason you aren't eating your eggs?"

"I have to meet my squad for breakfast. We're going to head over to the training grounds together. Eating too much before the test could make me sluggish." Glancing at the wall clock, Naruto jumped to his feet and waved to his dad. "Got to run, old man."

"Wait, Naruto!" Using his superior speed and skill, Minato trapped his son into an embrace before he could get out the door. "Congratulations. You pass today and we'll celebrate properly. If there's an emergency, I'm sending the Third to handle it."

Naruto sighed and returned his dad's hug. No matter if you were trying to be aloof and grown up, if the Yellow Flash of Konoha decided you needed hugging, you might as well just get it over with. "See you tonight."

* * *

Before the sun had made its first appearance of the day, scores of shinobi had started their work, be it training or missions. Rush hour, with shinobi skittering back and forth across roofs elbow to elbow with one another wouldn't start until after dawn. The early risers had more company than usual this morning, particularly one rarely punctual Uchiha.

Obito ran through the village toward a familiar one bedroom apartment. Like most of those out and about at the moment, he had an interest in the graduated Genin and the testing that would really gear up today. His old friend Kakashi had a nasty habit of flunking students by putting them into impossible scenarios and then holding them to unreasonable standards. The masked madman refused to budge on his testing methods, despite all attempts to reason with him.

Rather than knock politely, Obito stole to the bedroom window and eased the pane inward. Already awake and standing at the stove cooking, Kakashi served up two plates of sausages. "Tea or milk," he asked Obito as though they had breakfast every morning. "You're later than last time."

"Tea, and don't think civility is going to get you out of this conversation. Is that fennel I smell?" Obito entered the spartanly furnished three-room dwelling and was seated at the breakfast table in seconds. He nibbled a sausage and groaned with pleasure. "Tasty." He devoured the food on his plate and sighed contentedly. "Okay, so have you decided on the test you're giving today? You can't fail Sensei's son. So pick something doable and don't be a prick about the grading. By your own standards, you never would have passed. So just don't fail Naruto, please. Please?"

Kakashi ate his breakfast more sedately and shrugged. "If someone had made me reexamine the meaning of teamwork before chucking me into battle, you wouldn't have a seal covering half your body, keeping you alive by a twist of luck. I shouldn't have been a ninja until that lesson was learned. If sensei's son fails, he fails. And yes, failing the squads is part of the lesson. Those extra six months at the academy help it sink in." He tipped his tea cup up and finished the hot beverage off. Replacing his customary mask, he began clearing the dishes. "How's Rin? I haven't seen her in ages."

Obito scowled but let Kakashi change the subject. "No idea. We aren't speaking. She's dating that Special Jounin from Demolition, Aoi. I hate him."

"Why aren't you speaking? I thought she finally agreed to go out with you." Kakashi frowned as he rinsed the dishes. "What went wrong?"

"Everything. We ended up shouting at each other over fondue." Obito's shoulders slumped. "It was my fault, maybe a little her fault but mostly mine."

"Just date someone else for a while. Then maybe you won't be so wound up the next time she's free," Kakashi recommended. "I've met Sato Aoi, she isn't going to live happily ever after with that one."

"Like I would take romantic advice from you, confirmed bachelor and pervert extraordinaire that you are. I might as well ask a dog how to fly."

Kakashi crossed his arms over his chest. "Those are life choices. I've never had a problem with the ladies. But far be it for me to tell you what to do in your love life. I don't take your advice on the testing of Genin either so we're even."

Reminded of why he had come, Obito's face lit up. "Oh wow, I'm a genius! I'll make a deal with you. If you let me grade your Genin's exam today, I'll take your advice on how to proceed with Rin for the next, oh, four months."

Kakashi paused, and thought of the fun such an arrangement would bring, resolutely not smiling. "It wouldn't be right... I have a sacred trust as a Jounin instructor."

"Fine, I'll sweeten the deal, but this is my final offer, six whole months," Obito extended, "and I'll do exactly what you instruct in all aspects of romantic endeavors."

Kakashi's eyes squinted into his signature smile. He collected one of his favorite novels and flipped to a particularly juicy section. He looked at the illustration, glanced back at his Uchiha friend, and giggled almost girlishly. "You have a deal."

* * *

Naruto thought he was ready for anything. Angry, fired up Sakura had not been expected. She stormed into the Aburame compound, ignored the food on the table and started pacing. Her flushed face and hard eyes, did not seem to belong the same giggly girl from only the day before. "Did you make her angry?" Naruto whispered to Shino without taking his eyes off the pacing pinkette.

"Not likely. I'm not the one she has a crush on. What did you do to her? We have to function as a team today," Shino said quietly. He pushed his shades up and cocked his head to the side. "I think you should apologize before she gets any angrier."

"I'm not deaf," Sakura snapped. "I don't have a crush on you, Naruto, and I'm not angry at either of you, except maybe about that crush comment, but that isn't important today. We have to pass. Do you guys understand how important it is that we pass?"

"Of course we understand!" Naruto said. The fact that Sakura really seemed to care so passionately was a pleasant surprise to him. He pumped his fist and grinned his excitement. "Now let's get to the strategy."

Shino nodded, his calm demeanor unaffected by the energy his teammates crackled with. "Allow me to begin. I found two of Kakashi's former students and one was willing to elaborate on his failed Genin test. Kakashi informed them that he had decided to accept two students, the best of them. He then attached a pair of bells to his belt and invited his new team to claim their positions. Of course none of them succeeded in claiming a bell. When he failed them, he told them it was for failing at teamwork. Their only hope had been to work together and they didn't."

Naruto then Sakura took turns giving intel. A simple theme quickly emerged from their questioning of Kakashi's previous students (victims). Kakashi tried to turn his Genin on each other and then flunked them for failing at teamwork. Well, squad six wouldn't be falling for that craziness.

"Whatever happens, however he tries to turn us against each other, we stick together and we have a chance." Sakura punctuated her statement by finally sitting at the breakfast table where the boys had been grazing for some time. Shino and Naruto sitting side by side across from her, reminded Sakura of the careless comment about her 'crush' on Naruto. If the reserved Aburame felt such a blunt comment was appropriate, she had to wonder how over-the-top her attempts to get to know Naruto had maybe come across. If she wanted to be a ninja and be taken seriously by anyone, she couldn't have everyone think she was a boy-crazed fan girl. Resolving to be more professional and more subtle, she selected an apple and began eating.

* * *

Coughing up dust, a bruised and bloody Sasuke stood with as much pride as he could muster at his team's prearranged meeting site. Sure, he'd lost his bell and been pounded unmercifully by a bored, smiling, sadistic redhead, but he had some hope that at least one member of their team had evaded her and held onto their cargo. She couldn't fail them if she didn't get all the bells, he reasoned.

Kiba's arrival slung over Kushina-sensei's shoulder did nothing to improve his outlook. Her uniform remained damnably clean and her expression cheerful. "Good morning, Sasuke," Kushina said. She heaved Kiba to the ground. His puppy, who had been following her jumped on his chest and began licking his face. "It's time for your evaluation."

"Wait, what about Hinata?" Sasuke asked. "And shouldn't we wait for Kiba to regain consciousness?"

"It's nice that you care about your teammates. But Kiba is awake, has been since Akamaru started with the tongue bath." Though he hadn't sat up, sure enough, Kiba was stroking his partner. Kushina pointed toward the main gate. "And Hinata is right over there, watching us."

The young heiress looked worriedly toward her team and broke away from the shadow of the wall to join them. She dropped to one knee next to Kiba but he waved her off. With a groan, he sat up.

"As I said, it's time for your evaluations. Who was your leader?" Sasuke raised two fingers, identifying himself. "An Uchiha in charge—well Sasuke, explain your strategy."

Without looking at Hinata or Kiba, Sasuke answered in a clipped attempt at professionalism. "We decided that splitting up and evading you would offer our best hope of success. I went to ground in the Uchiha compound, where you found me and took my bell. You'll have to ask Hinata and Kiba about their own strategies once we split."

"Kiba?" Kushina smiled at the Inuzuka. "Are you feeling well enough to explain your strategy?"

Worrying absently at his busted lip, Kiba nodded. "Akamaru and I decided to head into training ground eleven. There's a lot of cover and we train there regularly so we know the layout. You found us and took my bell." His cheeks colored brightly remembering the one-sided battle that had ended when Kushina fished the bell out from where he'd hidden it in his trousers. He had no intention of reporting to his team or anyone that he hadn't been knocked unconscious by a blow to the head, but had fainted when a grown woman invaded his boxers. In her defense, Kushina had told him to surrender the bell or she would go get it. He hadn't believed she really would.

Kushina's smile broadened. "Those are the important parts, Kiba. Now Hinata, you didn't have your bell when I found you. You were told not to hide it. What happened?"

Looking very uncomfortable, Hinata gestured vaguely at the main gate. "I may have over-interpreted your instructions. You said we could not hide the bells off our person _in_ the village and that _we_ couldn't leave the village. But you didn't say the bell couldn't leave the village. So I gave my bell to a cousin and it should be halfway to Tea Country as he was leaving on a mission when I saw him."

"You passed your bell off at the gate?" Kushina clapped. "That was creative."

"So do we pass?" Sasuke asked. Was one bell in Tea Country enough to save them? Did he even want to pass under the circumstances?

"You worked together to problem solve and make quick decisions. You all worked independently and creatively when you had to. Of course you passed. Breakfast is on me. Hinata, you pick as the only student to successfully protect a bell. What are we having?"

"A nap?" Hinata requested timidly. "I'm really tired, Sensei."

* * *

Team six reached the appointed training ground just before 600 hours to find their sensei waiting for them, and he wasn't alone. A Chuunin wearing orange goggles stood arms akimbo at their Sensei's side. "That's Uchiha Obito," Naruto quietly told his team. "They're old teammates. My dad was their sensei."

"Why do you think he's here? Will he be part of the test?" Sakura asked. "The only tiny advantage we have against Sensei is numbers."

"If it makes you feel better, I have more than three thousand beetles on my person." A hint of a smile curved Shino's lips. "We still have the numbers, however you count."

"I feel better," Naruto said. Sakura looked slightly green so he patted her on the shoulder. "Aren't you glad he's on our side?"

Kakashi greeted his Genin with a raised hand. "Aren't you all punctual." He was surprised that they had arrived together, not one at a time. Did this group have the sense to meet and strategize together? The only squad he had even considered passing had showed this kind of unity to start. They failed in the end but they started strong.

Grinning, Naruto nodded along with his team. "Kakashi-sensei, we're just Genin. Do you really need backup to test us?"

Kakashi glanced at Obito. "He's just here to watch. He has no social life, no hobbies, and he's between missions. I assured him this would be amusing, even if the outcome is a foregone conclusion." If their expressions could be trusted, he had gotten a response with his jibe. Naruto had crossed his arms in annoyance, and Sakura's hands had curled into fists. The Aburame kid hadn't moved at all, but tiny beetles had been vacating their host since he hit the training grounds. Kakashi could just barely sense their tiny Chakra signatures filling the forest around him.

"Pot calling the kettle black if you ask me," Obito grumbled under his breath. "At least I've had a second date."

Ignoring his friend's comment, Kakashi smiled. "Your test today is to deliver three packages." He carefully placed a brown wrapped box into each Genin's hands. "You have until noon to make it to the addressee, wait for their response and return that response here. Be gentle with the packages, protect the packages, and don't open them."

All three Genin were frowning at the boxes in front of them. This test was nothing like anything they had researched. Frankly, the test seemed simple. "That's it?" Naruto asked. He wasn't going to pit them against one another? There weren't any bells?

Kakashi glanced casually at his wristwatch. "You have less than six hours to complete your test. Maybe you should get started." The three didn't need further encouragement, they immediately huddled up and began discussing how to proceed.

"Since when do you not test with bells?" Obito asked. "It's a village tradition."

"It's also a village tradition for the Jounin instructor to grade the test, but we're breaking with convention today." Kakashi watched his students as they hissed instructions and ideas back and forth. Naruto glared back toward Kakashi and Obito and jerked a thumb toward cover. His two teammates nodded, and they vacated the clearing.

"I don't think they trust me," Kakashi said with a smile.

"You told them you fail everyone and then gave them three packages to deliver. I'd be suspicious. Are you going to go after them and try to stop the deliveries?" Obito rubbed his hands together in anticipation of the coming action.

"Actually, you are." Kakashi took his novel out and flipped to a good section. He practically had this one memorized, but it was a classic. "They have three invitations to three ladies from you for a romantic rendezvous Friday." Kakashi looked up as though he were trying to remember the names of the ladies. "Let's see, who did those letters go to?"

"What?" Obito looked like he was about to choke. "You can't invite three different ladies to one date. That's suicide. Are the ladies ninja?" Kakashi nodded, his smile never wavering. "You're trying to get me killed!"

"Stop them then," Kakashi said. "Three Genin vs. one Chuunin, surely you can stop at least two of them. Then you won't have a problem." Obito's mouth opened and closed but no words came out. "If you're scoring the exam, you should be the one fighting it, so go make it challenging. You'll be a Jounin this time next year. Consider it practice."

* * *

Naruto unrolled a thick brown scroll and pulled out an ink brush. "Memorize the name and address on your box and then give them to me." He stared at his own box and recited, _Mitarashi Anko, 301 Gingko Lane, Apartment 369_ over and over in his head. Once satisfied that he wouldn't forget it any time soon, he set to work. Using the ink brush, his hand flew over the scroll until he had a perfectly drawn storage seal. Infusing chakra into the ink, he pushed his box into the seal.

"Wow," Sakura said, her eyes wide. "You didn't learn that at the academy."

"No, and Shino didn't get his beetles there either. My mom's an Uzumaki from Whirlpool. She's forgotten more about sealing than your average Konoha ninja ever learns. She's been teaching me since I could hold a brush. Hand your box over."

Sakura complied without further comment. Why couldn't her parents have been Shinobi masters of something? All they ever managed to ensure was that she got the best math grades in her class. And if their team didn't pass today, her parents would make sure she spent another decade or two in a classroom discovering a new profession.

Naruto rolled up the scroll and stowed it carefully in a pocket he could button. "Why don't we hit my delivery first? Ginkgo Lane isn't far." The three Genin raced along under the cover of trees that quickly gave way to the streets of the village.

"We're being followed," Shino announced without breaking stride.

"Kakashi-sensei isn't going to let us quietly deliver these packages without interference? Shocking." Naruto shot Sakura a sarcastic grin.

"This might shock you. It's the Uchiha after us. Kakashi hasn't left the training grounds."

"You sure your bugs aren't confused?" Naruto asked. Shino didn't even bother to reply. "We're coming up on the address. Do we assume the Uchiha is a threat?"

"Of course we do," Sakura said. "Distract and deliver, the scenario we discussed this morning-I'll deliver."

"Mitarashi Anko, 301 Ginko Lane, Apartment 369," Naruto recited flawlessly to his teammate.

It wasn't a smooth, practiced trap that the Genin sprung, but surprise, luck, and enthusiasm go a long way in non-life-threatening combat. Like a baton in a relay race, Naruto handed the sealed scroll off to Sakura and charged the location that Shino indicated. The boys would do their best to occupy their enemy long enough for Sakura to make as many deliveries as she could.

Obito didn't seem amazed to find a blond torpedo aimed at his midsection. Naruto's enthusiasm made him smile. It reminded him of himself. Human torpedo attacks were rarely a good idea when facing a superior enemy, and Obito set about showing Naruto why. He stepped to the side, got a hand on the Genin's jacket. Using his own momentum he launched Naruto face first into a tree. He sprawled motionless and unconscious. There was no time to stop and make sure Naruto was fine, though it twinged Obito to deal with the Aburame first.

He was bound to try using his clan's bugs on him, and Obito was not down with getting swarmed today.

Panting desperately, Sakura raced up the two flights of stairs leading to her first delivery and prayed silently that the occupant would be home. She pounded on the door, waited a heartbeat and pounded some more. "Mitarashi Anko!" Sakura called.

The door swung open, revealing a petit dark-haired woman with a purple toothbrush hanging from her mouth. She adjusted her robe and frowned at the Genin on her welcome mat. "Can I help you? You're going to wake the whole building, kid."

"Genin test," Sakura panted. She unfurled Naruto's scroll and applied chakra to the squiggle he had indicated meant release. Three boxes appeared immediately, still in perfect condition thanks to the seal. She selected the box with Anko's name and presented it to her. "I'm supposed to wait for a reply."

"Genin test?" Anko scowled and accepted the box. "Who is your sensei? Why is your sensei involving me in your Genin test? I don't have time for this sort of nonsense before caffeine."

"Our sensei is Kakashi," Sakura interrupted, hoping to head off a long rant. "I'm being pursued. Sorry, but can you please hurry."

"Kakashi didn't use bells? Whatever." Anko immediately ripped into the parcel. She pulled out a single white rose and a slip of paper. Her eyebrows went straight up as she read. "That's interesting. The man has lost his mind." Anko scribbled something on the paper quickly, folded it in half twice and handed it back to Sakura. "Good luck, kid."

As soon as she had the note secured in a pocket, Sakura scooped up the other two parcels. Resealing them would be ideal but impossible at the moment. She just didn't understand the sealing process well enough to risk it. Her legs protested running again so soon, but there was nothing for it. She had to get to the other two addresses. As little time as she knew she had, Sakura paused, torn between continuing to deliver packages and going back to check on her teammates. She knew they weren't in mortal danger, but leaving them to fight alone felt wrong.

"It's good that you're conflicted. Caring for your teammates will make you a good Shinobi. But this test is over," Obito said. Sakura wasn't the strongest Taijutsu fighter even for a Genin and she was trying to juggle a pair of packages. He knocked her on her butt with a leg sweep, stole the remaining packages and destroyed them with a quick fireball jutsu. "See, done."

Sakura sucked a deep breath in, the beginning of tears building in her eyes. She let Naruto and Shino down. Kakashi was never going to pass them for delivering one package and being bested by his Chuunin friend. Kakashi-sensei was so certain of their unworthiness that he hadn't bothered to even watch them take their exam.

"Come on, let's go get your team." Obito offered the crying girl his hand and pulled her to her feet. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"I'm just worried that we failed," Sakura hiccoughed. "Poor Naruto and Shino got stuck with me, and I let them down."

"What are you talking about? You guys were amazing. My Genin team, we were hopeless during our exam. You guys are going to be legendary. Mark my words." Obito patted Sakura on the back, hoping to stem her tears. _She cries easier than Rin did_, Obito thought randomly.

Just ahead, Naruto and Shino waited. Both were tied securely, though the latter's beetles were already working on his restraints. "Test is over; packages destroyed," Obito announced. He finished releasing both boys' restraints, but Naruto was still out. He lifted the blond onto his shoulder. "I've got Namikaze-san. Can you two walk back?"

Sakura and Shino nodded.

"Is Naruto okay?" Sakura asked after they'd been walking awhile without him coming around.

"He's fine. An oak tree back there walloped him one upside the head." Obito grinned. "Apparently he's pretty thickskulled as he's going to be fine. I have an excellent medic for a friend. She taught me a few things, including a couple of helpful diagnostic jutsu. I've never had the precision control to work the actual healing jutsu. It's better to let him do his own healing until we come across a real medic."

"Medics are pretty useful, I guess." Sakura wished she knew a jutsu to check on Naruto and heal him if he needed it.

Back in the clearing where the test had started, Kakashi waited, his nose buried in a book. A small brown dog sat at his side. "You can go Pakkun, thanks for the play by play."

"No problem." The dog vanished with a pop and some smoke.

Obito set Naruto down gently. "They passed the Hell out of that."

"Did they?" Kakashi frowned. "They only delivered one package, but they managed it with amazing teamwork. For three rookie ninja who have been working together for two days, it was impressive. You've ruined my perfect record. You do pass."

Forgetting all her worries about her insect loving teammate, Sakura hugged him and shouted her shocked glee. "We passed! Someone wake Naruto up, already! We passed!"

Naruto groaned and sat up. He looked at Sakura hugging Shino, his head pounding viciously. "Is that happy or sad hugging?"

Kakashi and Obito helped Naruto to his feet, each hoisting from one armpit. "Happy hugging," Obito reported.

"You passed," Kakashi supplied.

Naruto, restrained from screaming by his pounding head, still grinned widely and enthusiastically joined Sakura hugging a very uncomfortable looking Shino. "Team six, scores."

"Why don't you two take Naruto to the hospital and have him checked out, just for safety? We'll meet tomorrow morning, same time, same place. Oh and Sakura, don't you have a note for me?" Kakashi took the folded sheet of paper and waved to his first actual squad of Genin.

Obito waited for the kids to make their happy exit before he started the conversation he had been itching to have. "Who got the invitation? Was it really an invitation? Let me see that note. How could you do this to me? How did you even get this together so quickly? You're evil aren't you? I knew you were evil."

"Here." Kakashi handed the note over without reading it. "It's for you."

Obito unfolded the square of paper as though it might bite him. He read the contents three times before he could completely process it. "You're emotionally a ten-year-old, Hatake." He waved the note for effect and read the thing aloud.

_Dear Anko-sama,_

_My friend, Uchiha Obito, thinks you are very hot in a scary snake-girl way. He is between relationships and wants to approach you but is too shy._

_Please select an option below and return this note to the genin._

_1. I do not date Uchihas, their eyes are creepy._

_2. I will not date that Uchiha, he's creepy._

_3. Goggles are hot, please give him my number._

_4. He's hot, and it has nothing to do with his goggles._

_If you selected option three or four, excellent, please consider meeting him at training ground three on Friday at 1700 hours._

_Respectfully,_

_Hatake Kakashi_

"Which one did she choose?" Kakashi asked.

"Option five," Obito announced, reading on. "If you ever involve me in another childish game like this again, Genin test or not, I will send my giant snake summon to eat you and all your mangy dogs and the Uchiha friend you're trying to pimp me to, BAKA!"

Obito ripped the paper to shreds. "I'll never be able to look her in the eye again." For good measure he destroyed the shredded document with a tiny burst of fire chakra. What had he gotten himself into? Kakashi was going to destroy his reputation and any chance he had of reuniting with Rin at this rate.

With a dark frown, Obito remembered their last fight. He remembered screaming at her and asking her to leave. Maybe it was for the best, he thought. She was probably better off without him anyway.

He curled his right hand into a fist and watched his skin play over the seal under it. Like someone had set a lacework pattern over his muscles the seal was actually easier to feel than to see. It marked him and not in a good way. How could he expect her to love and trust and depend on him, when he might be lost on a whim of fate at any time? From the moment he accepted a seal, his loyalties had been divided. He knew it and so did she.

Both proud of his joke and his new Genin squad, Kakashi didn't catch Obito's darkening expression at first. His friend kept looking at his right hand, flexing and extending the fingers. Like everything south of his neck and on the right half of his body, Obito's fingers had been crushed, mangled unidentifiable flesh that had been regenerated by the nomad who healed them. Obito hadn't been able to move, to see the damage, but Kakashi remembered the horrifying wounds as though it had all happened yesterday. "Is it bothering you?" Kakashi asked. "The seal isn't doing anything?"

"It isn't doing anything except keeping me alive as usual," Obito said. "The seal, it's why we broke up, me and Rin."

Kakashi recognized the expression on his friend's face, the self-hate that he occasionally allowed to surface. "Rin broke up with you because of your seal? It doesn't sound like her."

"I broke up with her, Kakashi," Obito admitted. "We argued after I told her it was over. She tried to talk sense to me. We just ended up shouting. I regretted it afterwards, but most of the time I know it's for the best."

Kakashi stopped walking and just stared. Ten years of wooing, the girl finally started to fall for him and Obito ended things?

It wasn't uncommon for bearers of a sealed fatal wound to experience bouts of depression or regret, to fear what the seal might eventually do. Being an Uchiha, the pressures of his clan and protecting their doujutsu fell heavily on him, keeping the risks at the front of his mind. He could never completely forget what hung over him.

"The nomads have claimed exactly three sealed citizens from fire country in the last fifty years. All of them were female, and only one was a ninja. You don't belong to a high risk demographic and even if you did, the odds of that seal ever doing anything but keeping you alive are minimal. You're more likely to be struck by lightning."

Obito just dodged the lightning jutsu that Kakashi sent his way. "What was that for?" he shouted.

"Making a point," Kakashi said with a bitter smile that was impossible to read through his mask. He was glad Obito had come to see him this morning, glad he had gotten involved in the testing today. His friend had made a deal that Kakashi intended to exploit. His mind wasn't on amusing, embarrassing situations to foist his friend into anymore either. "Want to grab some lunch?"

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Finally, graduation is over. Around the corner, we have missions. Don't worry, I won't be going through a dozen D-ranks descriptions or anything crazy like that. These guys will be out of the village on their first C-rank by next chapter unless I get distracted down a side plot. No one is going to Wave Country, by the way.

It will be at least a week before the next chapter arrives. Work has me travelling some more for a few days.

This chapter was beta read by Chelsea and Book Imp. They are so speedy and helpful! :D


	5. The Glamorous Life of a Ninja

**Chapter 4 – The Glamorous Life of a Ninja**

Red hair swishing in the wind, Namikaze Kushina sprinted lithely across the village rooftops, three Genin trailing behind her. Arriving at the Hokage tower first, she stopped and waited for her team to enter in front of her. They filed in, already sweaty and dusty from their morning training. "Let's see if any good missions are left, something we can sink our teeth into."

"Like a C-Rank?" Kiba asked, showing his rather sharp canines.

"Like a D-Rank," Kushina replied.

"Not ready for a C-Rank then?" the Hokage asked from his seat behind the mission desk. He refrained from smiling at Kushina or at her bedraggled charges. She made a great Jounin instructor, pounding stamina into her students one grueling session at a time. The first months were all about teamwork, stamina, and refining basic skills.

"We're ready for a C-Rank," Sasuke said with a glance to his teammates. "We've been ready."

Kushina cuffed her insubordinate Uchiha on the back of the head and smiled sweetly at her husband. "We'll take another D-Rank, please. Something to make them sweat, I think, if you have it."

"We're never short of those." Minato handed over their mission scroll, he gestured unobtrusively for Kushina to stay back while her three students perused their latest exercise in humility. "I have a couple of reasonably easy C-Ranks on my desk. The other Jounin will be snatching them up for their Genin. Are you sure you want to pass them up? There may not be anything appropriate for weeks when they're gone."

"We aren't ready," Kushina said with a shrug. "See you tonight." She paused at the door and glanced over her shoulder. "Will Team Six be taking a C-Rank?"

Minato mimicked her shrug from earlier. "If Kakashi thinks they're ready, they will be." He interpreted the subtle spike in Killing Intent from his spouse as a vote for more D-Ranks. "I trust his judgment."

Kushina raised her hand in silent farewell. She wouldn't disagree with him in the office of the Hokage, not openly, but she saw no reason to encourage him to send their twelve year old son on a mission outside the safe boundary of their home. Maybe it would be a simple escort mission or a delivery or a minor retrieval, but anything could go wrong. Once a team ventured beyond the safety of the village there were too many dangerous variables. A pack of Iwa ninja could materialize and attempt to exact their nation's revenge on Naruto, a miniature Minato, unable to defend himself from their superior skills and hate driven attacks.

Kushina made herself break the spiral of worry the word C-Rank had sparked and turned her attention back to her students. "What do we have then?"

"Fertilizing a radish farm," Kiba said, without enthusiasm.

* * *

Digging out a collapsed culvert couldn't be classified as anything but manual labor requiring almost no technical skill. Most Genin teams sloughed through such missions in a straightforward manner, rolling up their sleeves and working until it was over and they could either take another mission or do some more interesting training. A few teams made the simplest missions complicated without even trying.

"I'm telling you, let me use a demolition seal. This will work and work fast. Then we can go back and pester Kakashi-sensei to teach us something interesting." Naruto brandished his sealing brush and used his best pleading face.

Sakura worried her bottom lip, torn over the situation. On one hand, at least half the time Naruto's jutsu and seals significantly sped up their missions. The rest of the time something went astray and with Naruto, astray was always a big mess. Shino had crouched down next to the two foot diameter collapsed area that stretched for ten feet under a packed dirt road.

"If we aren't very careful, someone could get hurt or we could destabilize this inroad to the farmer's crops. The ground is quite sandy. We'll need to shore our excavation as we go." Shino pushed his shades up and glanced over at Sakura.

Argh! inner Sakura screamed. Why did she always have to be the deciding vote? Her gut thought Shino had the better thoughts on the project, but she hated telling Naruto no. He never took it well.

"Wait, demolition is still the way to go," Naruto said. He climbed down next to Shino fingered the dirt, then paced the length that they would have to excavate. "We just blow it away, dig a trench straight through the road. We slide the new culvert back in and pack earth back over it. Voila!"

The image of a trench for the new culvert was correct; it was simple and logical. Sakura could have slapped herself for not seeing it sooner. She had been so busy worrying over having to tell Naruto no, she hadn't been thinking about their mission critically. This was environmental engineering as its simplest. She lived with a mechanical engineer who babbled about such problems daily. "You both make good points," Sakura said. "In a perfect world we'd do a soil analysis and get recommendations from an expert on how best to fix this. Most culverts are placed by digging a trench, placing the culvert, and packing the earth back over it. We just don't have anything heavy to properly repack the dirt. The road will fall apart over the culvert if it isn't repacked properly."

Almost five months into their rookie Genin year, neither boy looked shocked at their Kunoichi's technical knowledge. When Naruto had thought there wouldn't be written tests for ninja a few months earlier, he'd been wrong. There were a lot of practical situations with 'math' and 'essay questions' that required you to show your work. Sakura was a pink haired genius, and she was invaluable on those missions. Not only that, her endurance was improving and her Taijutsu… was still horrible. "How heavy are you thinking?" Naruto asked.

"A few tons," Sakura said quickly, "at least."

Naruto grinned happily. "I know a two ton toad."

"Know?" Shino asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"It's a summon," Naruto replied. Technically the largest toad he had ever managed to summon might weigh ten pounds after a big lunch, but all he had to do was put enough chakra in and he could get one of Master Jiriaya's riding toads, he was certain. Naruto had had plenty of chakra for his age, good Uzumaki genes according to his mother.

Unified in their plan, Naruto began drawing a petit demolition seal, while his teammates prepared to shift the concrete culvert.

* * *

"I hate your mother." Sasuke collapsed onto a stool outside Naruto's favorite ramen stand and glared at his blond friend. "She is torturing us for fun. The Hokage practically begged her to let us do a C-Rank and she declined. We spent the day hauling fertilizer instead."

Taking the time to finish his bowl of noodles, Naruto rolled his eyes. "She's just like that. It isn't personal. Really, I think she rather likes you now. You've grown on her."

"Likes me? Ninja should be better liars, Dobe." Sasuke spared him a disdainful glare. "How are things on Team Six?"

"Really good, Teme. Kakashi is sort of evil and really perverted, but we learn a lot. Sakura is still weird and she's pants at Taijutsu and has the worst stamina, but she's freakishly smart. It balances out. Shino is too quiet; I mean he never says anything that doesn't relate to the mission or our training. I think he finds me annoying, and he keeps tagging me with bugs." Naruto patted his jacket and ruffled his hair until he found a small green beetle. "See! He tagged me again!" Rather than squash or shoo the bug, Naruto let it find a new hiding place up his sleeve. "Not that bugs bother me, but it freaks Sakura out."

"You did mention she was weird. And you can be pretty annoying." Sasuke dodged Naruto's half-hearted punch and waited for him to pay for his meal. Companionably silent for the moment they strolled to the gates of the Uchiha compound, but Naruto didn't follow Sasuke through. "So, are you going home tonight? You want to stay over?"

The invitation didn't need to be spoken, though Sasuke always made a show of it when Naruto didn't just follow him home. Since they were small, the Namikaze heir spent as many nights in the Uchiha compound as he did at his own house. His father was the sitting Hokage which required long hours, and his mother was an elite Jonin that spent extended periods away from the village. It left a void that a series of masked, Anbu babysitters couldn't adequately fill. Naturally Sasuke's home with his stable, civilian mother had become a sanctuary to him.

"We have a C-Rank guarding a caravan. We leave tonight." Naruto smiled tentatively, nervous of Sasuke's reaction. What if Sasuke thought he was rubbing his nose in the fact that they received the C-Rank he wanted? "Wish me luck?"

"I officially hate you too." But Sasuke smiled his approval. "Be careful, okay? I won't be there to watch your back."

"My team has my back. I trust them, even the pinkie. It's going to be awesome."

* * *

"I can't believe you gave Team Six the first C-Rank of their class. They've only been active duty for four months. You really think they're ready for everything that can happen out there?" Kushina paced her kitchen, resolutely not looking at the calm, sincere face of her husband. "And don't tell me not to worry or that he's a ninja of the Leaf and it's his duty."

"No one is ever completely prepared, my lovely tomato. Leaving the safety of the village is part of learning. Naruto is as ready as he can be for a twelve year old Genin." Minato snaked an arm around his irritated wife's waist and whispered almost inaudible words of love and comfort into her ear until the tension in her shoulders had melted away.

"Sorry for panicking a bit there. It's our way of life and it's time. It all just flew by so fast. I swear he was playing ninjas and miming fake jutsu with Sasuke in the back yard yesterday, and now he's off on his first C-Rank."

"He's not gone yet. Let's see him off at the gate." Minato pulled Kushina toward the front door.

"You don't think it will embarrass him, do you? Do you think he remembered everything? Let me grab an extra canteen just in case, and some rations. He probably only packed instant ramen."

Minato let her grab the handful of things she thought essential that Naruto might not have packed and together they headed for the village gates.

Naruto stood straight and calm with his team. He had traded in his usual orange accented jumpsuit, for a darker, more-stealthy, burnt umber option. His blond hair and bright blue eyes were unfortunately, entirely too distinctive. Minato resolved to remind Naruto about his special kunai when saying farewell. If an enemy came after his son for retribution against Konoha's Yellow Flash, they would get a surprise, including an express trip to the afterlife.

He watched while Kushina forced the extra rations and spare canteen on Naruto, who accepted the items with an almost imperceptible eye roll and managed to jam them into his already full pack. "Thanks mom."

Minato stepped forward and dropped to a knee to address his son on eye level. "You have your special kunai? Is it where you can reach it quickly if you need it? Show me."

Naruto drew the three pronged throwing dagger that could almost instantly summon his father seamlessly from inside his jacket. "I'll be careful, Dad." He leaned in and whispered. "Now can I get some space? No one else's parents came down to see them off."

Minato chuckled and nodded. With fluid grace he was back on his feet and at Kushina's side. "Come on, we should leave these ninja to their work." He exchanged a single, significant look with Kakashi before strolling nonchalantly away.

With a jerk of his head, Kakashi drew his team's attention. "You've been given the fist C-rank from your genin class. Prove you're up to it. List all pertinent logistic points of this mission. Sakura, begin."

"The cargo is agricultural, relatively bulky and difficult to steal. Unless the bandit had a textile mill or a slaughter plant to take the goods to, there isn't much value here," Sakura answered quickly.

Naruto took over at Sakura's glance, grinning in his excitement. "Part of our mission, the biggest part if I had to guess, is going to be helping keep up with stray livestock. The cattle won't be harnessed or roped. We have to drive them." He paused, wondering if his toad summons would be helpful herding cows.

"We will have to pace the journey to the herd and travel a route that provides a regular water source and grazing at night," Shino contributed without inflection.

"Tell me something that isn't in the scroll," Kakashi commanded. "Shino, what is important?"

Shino knew the answer Kakashi wanted, but he wondered how Naruto would feel about discussing it. Shinobi villages didn't willingly share information; they didn't have birth announcements between them or a common obituary service. When a powerful political figure like the Hokage had a son, it was a village secret, but it was never perfectly kept. Other villages were bound to know of his teammate's existence in at least a vague way. They would be watching for the emergence of the Namikaze heir. He was a relatively vulnerable target for now and he would always be an extra consideration on any mission. "We are traveling with a political figure, the Hokage's son."

"Now, how best to deal with this small issue?" Kakashi asked. When his students didn't immediately volunteer ideas, he explained. "Foremost, we will use only Naruto's given name, never his family name in the field. Shino and Sakura, you have consistently addressed him with his given name in training and that habit now becomes a sacrosanct rule of team six. If forced to use a family name for any reason, Naruto should be referred to as Uzumaki."

Shino accepted Kakashi's order without blinking. "Are we going to bother changing his resemblance to the Hokage?"

Naruto's hands flew through the signs for a henge and after the smoke cleared, a brown haired, brown eyed, very mundane featured Genin stood in his place. "Just call me Sato," he said with a smirk.

Kakashi shook his head. "Henges can be sensed and broken. You're safer wearing your own face rather than allowing an enemy to find out that your true appearance could be important." Naruto dispelled his henge, accepting his sensei's logic.

"When civilians want to change their hair color they just dye it. You can't sense dye or break it. And Naruto would look much less like his dad without the blond hair, not to mention that it would help us improve our stealth and concealment. His hair practically glows." It hurt Sakura's secret fan-girl heart to even suggest that Naruto dye his striking hair, but she stamped down that aspect of her personality and forced herself to remain professional. They were all genin and surviving to be chunin might not be without its indignities.

"If it's a stealth issue, we should both dye our hair, Pinkie," Naruto replied with an arched brow. He ignored Sakura's grimace at her nickname. "What do you think sensei?"

"It isn't a bad idea, but Tea Country is an ally and theirs is the only border we will be crossing. If we were headed north, we might be a bit more cautious." If the mission were headed north, team six would not have been considered for it at their level of training, especially with the added millstone of Naruto's political status, but Kakashi saw no reason to elaborate on those points.

Showing none of his inordinate concern for the three green genin he was taking out into the world for their first semi-real mission, Kakashi put on his smile and gestured for the three kids to follow him. "Let's go."

* * *

Far from the south gate and team six's departure, inside a tastefully decorated, climate controlled room of Konoha's central hospital, a disgruntled Chunin sat in a very comfortable, squishy chair. Engaged in a serious staring contest with an annoyingly patient, medic-counselor-type, he forced himself not to fidget. Ninja did not squirm during staring contests with medical professionals, especially shrinks.

"Obito-san, if you don't talk the session is pointless. Why are you here if you don't want help?" the calm, blond medic asked.

"I lost a bet—sort of, Doc," Obito said. Kakashi had declared that what his friend needed to start a happy relationship was some time talking with a medic about his problems. Because of the ridiculous deal they had made, Obito was obliged to seek the prescribed therapy for at least six months. It would be a breach of honor to back out now. "My friend, Kakashi, thinks I would be happier if I talked to someone about a few things, like my seal."

"Your friend's thoughts don't matter here. What do you think? If you don't think you need help or to talk, this is a waste of time. Do you want to talk Uchiha Obito?" she asked. "Anything you say here is confidential. Talking can help." She waited another long minute before shrugging and closing her notepad. "I see no reason to waste an hour staring at each other."

The medic wasn't going to let him sit quietly for the hour like he had planned. Apparently it was talk or leave. Damn Kakashi and his ridiculous demands. "Do you like being a medic?"

"Do you like being a ninja?" she asked.

Answering questions with questions, classic shrink tactics—Obito shrugged. "Yes, actually, most Uchiha join the police force, but I wanted to see the world so I went to the academy. I love being a ninja. I have good friends, and plan to take the Jounin exam this year. The village is at peace. My sensei is Hokage."

"Good for you." The medic waited, her notebook still closed. "You're happy and you don't need to talk, right? I have work to do. Go home."

"I thought you said we had to talk or I had to leave. We're talking. I can't help it how awesome my life is. Leaving would mean breaking my word, so I won't," Obito said stubbornly.

The medic cocked her head to the side and shook her head. "Chatting is not acceptable. Tell me five things in your life that aren't perfect, that aren't even good."

"Five? That's arbitrary." Obito shrugged, determined to keep the visit going for an hour. "My best friend is a pervert—definite negative. The Vipers, my favorite football team, just lost their best forward to an ACL tear—tragic."

The medic sighed, interrupting his impersonal attempt to answer her challenge. "Small talk? Rather than wait for you to mention all the rain we've been having, I'm going to just go find somewhere else to work for the next, forty-five minutes. Maybe your friend Kakashi will accept you having a quality talk with my plant there. This is a hospital, and I'm a professional. Wasting my time is an insult."

"My apologies." Obito bowed his head in contrition. Resignation in his eyes, he began speaking, all cloying humor suddenly gone from his voice. "You win. A serious discussion it is. Bearing a seal is the worst part of being me, so we should stick with that. Stop me if you've heard the story—I was crushed under a boulder over ten years ago. I knew it was bad because it didn't hurt. Then I saw my teamates' faces and I knew it was worse than bad. My wounds should have been fatal, but there was a nomad in the area named Sumire. She healed me, sealed my wounds so that it was like it never happened." Obito flexed his right hand and held it up so the medic could see the faint white outline of the healing seal.

"You were lucky."

"I was." Obito smiled blandly as though they were still discussing the lovely weather. "Everyone didn't feel that way. If it wasn't for Minato-sensei, my clan would have executed me for being so reckless with the Sharingan. Uchihas do not accept healing seals. We do NOT risk our doujutsu. I pretended that it didn't matter, that the whole clan hating me was insignificant." Obito stared at his hand. "But if this seal activated, I'd stop being Uchiha Obito, Ninja of the Leaf. I would walk away from this life and wander, healing people like I'd been healed. Accepting the seal was wrong, and I know that."

The medic waited, showing no surprise that her frivolous appointment had abruptly shared so much of his anxiety with her. Shinobi were often quirky and rarely undamaged. Getting past the quirky, was an art. "Accepting the seal was wrong? By that logic, dying would have been right. Very few people with seals ever walk away from their lives and become nomads. And there is always warning, Obito. Choosing to live unless you're forced to die isn't wrong, whatever the Uchiha clan feels on the subject. You haven't done anything to be ashamed of." The medic resumed her seat and opened her memo pad.

"Do you have any contact at all with your family?"

"Not since Minato-sensei stopped my execution. I see them, my mother and father, but they don't acknowledge me. Most of the time, it doesn't bother me. I try not to think about it." Obito scooted closer and extended his hand so that it was next to the medic. "But it's always there, like netting over my muscles everywhere it regenerated. Every flex or twitch and I feel it. I'm reminded that my mother and father and everyone of my clan want me to die."

The medic scribbled Depressed? Suicidal? Alienated? "Do you want to die? It seems to me, a lot of people want you to live. We met less an hour ago, and I can name two people concerned for your well being. But tallying other people's opinions is pointless. What do you want Uchiha Obito?" He didn't answer her and she underlined the word suicidal. "I know a bit of what you're going though." She tucked a lock of blond hair behind her ear, exposing the left side of her face and neck. A faint white seal traced under her skin, similar to Obito's own. "I was in an accident as a child, not life threatening but disfiguring. My mother asked the first sealed healer that came along to fix me. Not bearing a bloodline or the expectations of a clan, I can never completely understand your shame at choosing to live. The helplessness and loss of control, that I understand completely."

"So what am I supposed to do?" Obito asked. "What do you do when you feel the seal under your skin and you feel helpless and out of control?"

"I keep living. It usually doesn't seem so bad in the morning." The medic took his marked hand in both of hers and squeezed briefly.

As though startled by her touch, Obito leaned away and folded his hands in his lap, surprised at how much better he felt for just talking to this stranger. His expression turned sheepish and he met the medic's eyes. He had stormed into his appointment dramatically and initiated a staring contest. No pleasantries had been exchanged, and he didn't even know this woman's name. "I guess we're going to be meeting twice a week for the next six months. So what's your name Doc?"

"Ito Jun—it's nice to meet you, Obito-San."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Yeah, I'm back. Got a bit hung up and shelved the fic for a while. I didn't send it to beta because it's been a year and it seems rude to expect anyone to still be willing o.o

As for the chapter, don't panic, I'm not planning an OC/Obito love match. He's just getting some counseling and giving me a chance to elaborate further on the Sealed Healers. Writing that section was a pain—trying to keep Obito's tone and character consistent and IC; trying not to be melodramatic when discussing his seal anxiety.


	6. An Uzumaki Thing

**Chapter 5 - An Uzumaki Thing**

The agricultural caravan, a slow moving snake of cattle and produce laden wagons, rolled forward with only the occasional bellowing of a cow to mark its passage. Early in the trip Naruto had summoned a half dozen of the smaller toads to help keep track of stray calves and Shino had even tagged the repeat offenders with tracker beetles. The mission that had seemed sort of exciting three days ago, now seemed far more tedious than the average D-Rank. At least D-Ranks ended. This mission would take more than a week, an eternity.

Kakashi appeared soundlessly at Naruto's side and tapped his shoulder. "Water ahead. We're driving these guys due east and taking a break."

"Sure sensei," Naruto sighed. He created a pair of bunshin to inform his toads of the direction change and started the gradual process of turning a few hundred cattle.

At the watering hole, the ninja helped their clients set up camp for the evening, pitching tents, building fires and even fishing for a bit of fresh meat for dinner.

Kakashi watched his students with no small amount of pride. They had worked without complaint mastering the repetitive boring task their mission entailed. Perhaps a reward was in order. Now that they had the mission under control, he could teach them something useful to work on as they walked. He collected a handful of leaves and strolled over to his charges. "Who wants to learn their elemental affinity?" Kakashi asked casually. Sakura perked up though Naruto and Shino just exchanged a quick look. With ninja families, their affinity had likely been determined years earlier. He half expected Naruto to exclaim his affinity and ask for a better challenge. "Naruto, Shino, have you been tested?"

"Yeah, I'm a wind-type like my parents," Naruto volunteered.

"Earth," Shino deadpanned.

Kakashi nodded, unsurprised by either revelation. He knew Naruto's parents' affinities and the Aburame's were all either water or earth-types. The wrong elemental affinity could be devastating in that clan. Fire-types or lightning-types were incompatible with the bug colonies. He had even heard of Aburame that had been cast out of the clan for being born with a dangerous, incompatible elemental affinity.

"How will we find my affinity?" Sakura asked. Trying not to show her disappointment that yet again she was behind her teammates, she kept her smile bright. Kakashi handed over a small strip of paper and after a few moments the soggy strip had declared her a water-type.

"So what's our lesson?" Naruto asked, hoping for a new jutsu.

"We're going to practice chakra control for the rest of the mission." He handed out leaves to everyone. "If you can channel a fine stream of chakra into the leaf you will get the same response as you would from the testing paper. Naruto, yours will tear, Shino's crumble to dust, and Sakura yours will get soggy."

"Control lessons?" Naruto whined. "Can't you teach us a jutsu?"

"You have to master the three major chakra control exercises before I teach you any new jutsus. What you learned in the academy will suffice until then."

Shino accepted his leaf without further comment and resumed his meal, while Sakura and Naruto both began meditating on their leaves. Kakashi had just settled in to read his bright orange bound novel when a figure emerged from the deepening twilight. An old, stooped man made his way toward their camp with the aid of a gnarled walking stick. While he sensed nothing dangerous or awry, Kakashi drew a kunai imperceptibly from his sleeve and timed his students' reactions. Shino spotted their interloper first, then Naruto. Sakura only started as he stepped into the glow of their small bonfire.

"Pardon me," the man croaked. "I saw your camp and hope you won't mind another traveler wandering with your caravan for a while." He rolled up a sleeve, revealing an intricate white seal tracing under his lined and sagging skin. "If you don't abide Sealed Healers I can move on."

The three students looked to Kakashi for guidance. He eye-smiled at the old man, though inside he cringed. He was not superstitious. He knew sealed healers were not inherently bad luck, but their seals drew them toward disasters, death, and accidents. The arrival of a sealed healer might save your life, but almost definitely meant you were going toward danger. "I don't know how our employers feel about your kind, but you can stay the night here anyway. If they ask you to move on tomorrow, we will have to ask you to leave."

"Good enough, name's Jacque." After a round of quick introductions, the man settled next to the fire with a groan. Without asking, Kakashi dished the man a serving of their dinner, fish and berries and a single dry protein bar.

While their guest dug into the meal with gusto, Kakashi turned to his students. "I suppose this is a good time to discuss your individual feelings about seals and healing. Shino, you have your kikaichū. If you're ever incapacitated and your teammates could save you with the aid of a sealed healer, would you want that assistance?" Kakashi asked.

The young man adjusted his shades thoughtfully and nodded. "We're allowed to accept a seal if the alternative is death or permanent impairment. Our clan is very civilized about it. We just have to give up our colonies on return to the village."

Kakashi hadn't been certain of the Aburame policy and after Obito's struggles it was a relief to find out that they were so progressive on the topic. Without clan pressures, Sakura and Naruto shouldn't have issues with accepting a seal if the need ever arose, so Kakashi threw his next query at them both almost casually. "I assume that means everyone here would accept a seal over death or permanent physical impairment?"

Sakura nodded agreement but Naruto looked uncomfortable before shaking his head. "I'm not allowed to take a seal under any circumstances. I promised my mother. So if it ever comes up and I can't say no for myself, don't let anyone put a seal on me."

"That's crazy," Sakura hissed. "We're ninja. You can't just hamstring yourself like that. I couldn't just let you die if we had a chance to save you. Right Shino? Right sensei?"

Inscrutable behind his shades, Shino didn't chime in with Sakura. Kakashi on the other hand expressed his shock with a raised eyebrow. Kushina made her son promise to accept death before the seal of a healer? "Does your father know you're officially turning down sealed healing in the face of death? I can't see him approving that policy."

Naruto shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "It's an Uzumaki thing."

Only the mission parameter baring the discussion of Naruto's surname, kept Kakashi from verbally berating his genin about being a Namikaze. Backwater, Uzumaki nonsense shouldn't apply to him. "Well, we had best be careful with you then," Kakashi replied tightly. His eyes promised a more thorough discussion when they were safely home.

"Uzumaki," the old man, Jacque, said. "You're an Uzumaki?" The man stared across the fire at Naruto then chuckled dryly. "Aren't so many of you left; perhaps it's the stubbornness about never accepting help from Sealed Healers, eh?"

"Are you disrespecting the Uzumaki clan?" Naruto leaned forward, practically growling.

"I'm sure our guest meant no disrespect," Kakashi said with false cheer. "I do think it's time for bed team six. You can work on those leaves tomorrow."

Though he glared a few final seconds at Jacque, Naruto let his teammates pull him away from the confrontation.

The old man finished his meal, licked his fingers clean, and nodded to Kakashi. "Thanks for the meal. Felt your seal; it's an eye, yes? Not a fatal wound."

Kakashi nodded; his sealed left eye wasn't exactly a village secret. "Not fatal but pretty debilitating, especially for a ninja. Is your seal pulling you somewhere?"

"It's always pulling, but the tug is gentle tonight. I may be nearing my destination. Finding ninjas usually precedes an injury or two at least." The old man rubbed his shoulder where his own seal resided. "Though this isn't exactly a battlefield."

"Let's hope it doesn't turn into one," Kakashi replied. His tone rang cool with the certainty that any mission, anywhere, anytime could turn into a battle or even death.

"Bedtime," Jacque rumbled. He arranged his coat into a makeshift pallet and soon the night was filled with his snores. But Kakashi couldn't find it in him to sleep. He watched over his students through the night, curiosity and concern running races in his brain.

The next morning the caravan moved on its slow plodding pace and the sealed healer, Jacque, left at the first crossroads, his seal pulling him away to some unknown imminent tragedy.

Kakashi was glad to see him go.

* * *

Sweaty and nursing a busted lip, Sasuke slipped into his bedroom to strip away his grimy training clothes. His sensei had become nothing short of maniacal since team six left on the first C-rank of their graduating class. Any moron could see the red-haired demon was worried about Naruto, but Sasuke was tired of being one third of her relief valve. It was a stupid C-rank babysitting livestock. Even Naruto, who had always been ridiculously accident prone, wasn't going to get trampled by cows.

A testament to how tired he was, Sasuke completely missed his brother's trap. The almost invisible wire across the threshold to the bathroom, triggered a deluge of icy water. "Itachi!" Sasuke shouted. "I don't need this right now."

"You can't let your guard down so easily." Itachi appeared, crouching on the window sill. "Perhaps your Jounin sensei is not drilling you with enough diligence? I'll have to have a talk with her."

A puff of smoke remained where the three shuriken Sasuke launched at Itachi flew. The brothers skirmished with taijutsu until Sasuke launched a fireball that very nearly ignited the drapes. "Little brother, no fireballs in the house." Itachi's speed became impossible for the younger Uchiha to follow and he ended the fight in two strikes. "You have improved after all. We who don't join the police force can't afford to be less than the best. We're the Uchiha the other nations will fight and judge the clan by. Don't let me catch you unawares again, or father will hear about it. He can still slot you into the police if you stop improving."

"I hate you." Sasuke held a hand to the broken nose his brother had added to his injuries.

"You love me," Itachi replied with a careless wave. "Your little friend is back from his C-Rank by the way. Thought you'd like to know."

* * *

Minato accepted the signed mission scroll from Kakashi, careful to contain his fatherly smile and keep his Hokage mask in place. The kids were filthy and sun-kissed and brimming over with enthusiasm. "Don't forget to collect your pay," Minato said. He expected Kakashi to leave with his team, but he dismissed them and lingered behind.

"Normally these filings go through the mission desk, not over the desk of the Hokage. But one of my students issued a no-seal request while we were out of village and I thought you might want to file it personally."

Minato frowned, already suspecting what he would see on the slip of paper. He had seen this form before with Kushina's name at the top. How could she have talked Naruto into this kind of decision without even discussing it? In most things Minato was a reasonable man, but not when it came to his family, not when it came to their lives. He barely heard Kakashi's angry complaint.

"Naruto is a Namikaze. Why the Hell is he spouting the old bigoted Uzumaki healing-seal-idiocy?" Kakashi hissed.

"I will handle it." Minato crumpled the form and incinerated it with a burst of pure chakra.

Using the hiraishin, Minato appeared in his home. He should really have run or even walked, it would have given him a chance to calm down and think. Instead he followed the quiet clinking of his wife in the kitchen, his outrage fresh and raw. "We need to talk."

Kushina looked up from the cutting board and arched an eyebrow at her husband's chilly tone. "The Uchiha asked for his butt kicking. It wasn't any worse than usual and if his father is complaining again, he needs to grow a pair."

"I accepted your feelings about Sealed Healers, accepted that I might have to watch you die and refuse a Sealed Healer's care. It is your choice. But Naruto is our son, a Namikaze by name. How dare you tell him he isn't allowed?"

"No." Kushina stumbled back, a horrified expression on her face. "He got hurt on the mission? Is he okay? Is he at the hospital. He didn't die?"

It was a testament to his anger, that Minato didn't even feel bad that she had jumped to that conclusion. Maybe the pain of it would make his argument for him. "He's fine, and if he ever needs a sealed healer, he will use one. You're going to tell him so tonight."

A long slow breathe escaped her, and Kushina visibly sagged with relief. "You can hate me for it and I'll understand, but he can't take a seal, ever. He looks so much like you it's ridiculous, but that's Uzumaki chakra he moulds. I feel it and so do you. Uzumaki do not take seals. Bad things happen when we do."

"Bad things? You always say that but never elaborate. What's worse than dying?" Minato barked.

"Clan secret." Kushina hated the note of pleading in her voice, but she knew what was coming. He had never pushed it before. He let her have her way, but he wouldn't now, not when it was regarding Naruto's safety. "I swore to keep my clan's secrets before I swore allegiance to this village. That vow cannot be superseded."

"How can I accept an argument you refuse to make properly?" Minato snapped. "I'm not asking as the Hokage. I'm asking as your husband, and the father of your son. Why is this so important to you?"

"I've been a ninja for over twenty years and never needed a sealed healer. You've never needed one. Most ninja never need a sealed healer. This isn't worth arguing over." Kushina returned to her cutting board and resumed dicing vegetables.

"Most ninja never need a sealed healer, but my student, Obito, wouldn't have survived without one. The Uchiha clan almost killed him for taking a seal. That was stupidity and so is this." Minato snatched the knife out of her hand and swept the cutting board onto the floor raining vegetables across the grey tiles.

"Dad, Mom, what's up?" Naruto frowned at the strange tableau. His mother never took things lying down. She was never passive, but she seemed wilted under his father's imposing figure. And while he didn't think his father was intentionally menacing her with a carving knife, he found himself fingering a Kunai nervously. His dad dropped the knife onto the counter and spared him a tight smile.

"Your mother has something to say to you."

Standing straighter, Kushina shrugged. "Sure I do. Kid, you remember when we visited Whirlpool and your grandpa tested your chakra. You remember what he told you? I want you to explain it to your father."

"But I promised to keep it secret," Naruto hedged uncomfortably.

"You're a Namikaze first, and you can tell your father if he promises you he'll keep it to himself. All right? I'll leave you boys alone for a bit. Since dinner is on the kitchen floor, I'll get some take out while you talk." Kushina strode forward and knelt in front of her boy. "It's really okay. He has to understand or he won't accept it. And I can't tell him because I'm an Uzumaki first. Your grandpa would kill me. Literally."

"Okay. Grandpa won't kill me, will he?" Naruto asked nervously.

"Of course not. Besides, we're not going to tell him." Kushina kissed him on the forehead and left her men alone.

Naruto met his dad's worried eyes and grinned. "Don't look so grim. Grandpa told me that as long as I never take a seal, nothing bad will happen."

Minato pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and gestured Naruto over. "If you were hurt badly enough to need a seal, dying would be pretty bad. Explain what would be worse. I can't think of anything worse."

"Worse would be hurting everyone." Naruto frowned, trying to eloquently enunciate something he had been told when he was six without a proper refresher since. "You know the Uzumaki clan are sealing specialists, and the sealed healers have a special relationship with them, with us. We're like cousins or something. The first Sealed Healers were all Uzumaki. Nowadays a sealed healer that's an Uzumaki is special. They can do things that others can't, and sometimes they do things they shouldn't, and they unseal doors that shouldn't be opened, and sometimes monsters can get out, and sometimes people die. So Uzumaki don't take seals from sealed healers and all the dangerous doors stay closed and everyone stays safe. Or that's the gist of it."

"That's ridiculous." Minato barely refrained from rolling his eyes. "It sounds like superstitious nonsense to me."

"Was the burning of the Land of Waves a myth or a historical fact, because grandpa seemed pretty sure that that was my great-great aunt who took a seal, was called to wander, and let something dark out, something that liked to kill and burn."

Minato wanted to dismiss Naruto's recitation as complete hokum, but the Land of Waves had burned over a century ago, under bizarre circumstances. No witnesses survived to describe the disaster, but the earth was scorched to charcoal and it was more than a decade before anything grew in that wasteland again. "Even if somehow that isolated disaster could be linked to your great-great aunt, I don't think its grounds to blame sealed healers and any Uzumaki who become them."

"I'll just be careful, okay. We're the Land of Fire, but I don't want to be responsible for burning it. I don't want a seal. Ever."

For a child who was supposed to look exactly like his father, Minato could see nothing but his mother's stubbornness in Naruto's expression. "I'm not going to win this argument, am I?" Minato asked. "You're supposed to listen to your father occasionally."

"I always _listen_." Jumping down, Naruto began rounding up the scattered vegetables. "You need to teach me a new jutsu so I'll be more able to defend myself from the dangerous world. Badass ninja don't get hurt bad enough to need healing seals."

"Don't say that around your sensei. He might take offense." Minato couldn't bring himself to smile at his son's antics, pleading for a new jutsu. Kushina had always handled Naruto's education aside from the academy basics. She had more time. And she had taught him things Minato would never have approved if he'd been consulted. "If you want to train with your dad, it won't be just for a jutsu."

Naruto dropped the vegetables he'd collected. "You mean like really train with you?"

"Every day, before you meet up with your team if you want. What do you say?" Minato could barely understand Naruto's excited affirmation as his son launched himself at his midsection. "Tomorrow then."

* * *

Standing together at the sink, Kushina and Minato worked in silence washing and drying the dishes. When the sink was empty and the dishes had settled back into the cabinet homes, Minato broke the silence. "You really thought I'd buy that fairy tale and drop it?"

"It's how the clan elders explain things to the kids once they confirm that the child is an Uzumaki. When they're old enough to know the whole story, they have to take the secrecy oaths to get it." Kushina crossed her arms over her chest. "You knew what you were marrying into when you made your vows. My father threatened you, warned you, did everything but forbid our union. My father warned me too, warned me that it would be complicated especially with our children."

Minato felt it, the tension that could become a break, a parting of the ways. They had always bent before when their point of view clashed, bent and blurred and compromised. Kushina had allowed Naruto to tell his father what he knew, and now it was Minato's turn to bend. "Consider this my warning to you, we will discuss the decisions about our child's future together. This isn't Whirlpool and no one here has bought into your family's twisted mythology except for you. I'm going to be training with Naruto in the mornings for the foreseeable future. It's my turn to have my say in his education."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

The problem with writing serial style is that you end up sometimes losing perspective on the narrative. I almost feel like I'm over-explaining sometimes. Darn you pacing! There will be another time skip soon. And I don't think I want to write a Chunin exam.


	7. Interlude - Kissing Frogs

**Interlude - Kissing Frogs**

Sato Aoi made a good boyfriend. He was adequately tall, reasonably kind, perfectly intelligent. He brought his girlfriend flowers at least once a week and paid the bill when they ate out. And when he kissed her... when he kissed her, Rin felt nothing, no tingles, no butterflies, no heat. He might as well be a trout for all the passion he kindled in her.

Pulling away from another clinically adequate kiss before it could turn into a perfectly chilling make out session, Rin strode behind her desk and patted a pile of folders. "Aoi, I have charting to do. Rain check?"

"Of course. Tomorrow, lunch?" Aoi asked.

"I'm working all week and you're leaving on a mission in two days. Tomorrow, dinner. We'll have time to talk." Rin couldn't bring herself to smile over the prospect of what she knew was going to be a difficult conversation, but she couldn't let him leave on a potentially long mission without resolving some things between them.

His face, never overly transformed by emotion, went blank. "If that's what you want."

Many ninja became emotionally stunted. It was a side effect of their lifestyle, and while Rin had no illusions that she embodied mental health, Aoi had the emotional range of a potted plant. She hadn't minded at first. A safe, uncomplicated relationship between professionals, their time had been comfortable. After the raging roller coaster of dating Obito, comfortable had been a relief. But now that those wounds were no longer raw, Rin wanted more than a companion with warm arms who could adequately fake the emotions that should be behind his eyes.

"Finally, I thought he was never going to leave."

With a swirl of leaves, her Uchiha-ex appeared at her side. He smiled and though her heart sped involuntarily, Rin kept her face calm, impassive. "Are you injured, Uchiha? This is a hospital and if it's an emergency I can understand that you might barge into my office, otherwise I expect visitors to knock."

"Sorry." Obito's smile faded a degree and he withdrew toward the window. "I came to say sorry about last Christmas. Out of the blue a bit, I know. You didn't deserve the way I treated you. You were perfect, and I was stupid. You're still perfect and I'm... messing this up."

Rin recognized what was happening to Obito; she'd seen it a hundred times before. He had come with a mission to impress or woo her. He probably had a speech all planned and her reception had thrown him, derailed his plot, and now he would flee. The old Obito always tried again with a new invitation or speech or present.

The old Obito died when they were children.

New Obito might be back or he might not. New Obito required encouragement in certain endeavors. She had realized the change in him before accepting his invitation to dinner two years ago, before they became serious, before she proposed a more permanent union. As much as he had hurt her, she didn't hate him. And she wanted him to try again, preferably after she had broken things off with Aoi.

She caught his arm before he could decide to flee, determined to offer enough encouragement to bring him back to her once more. "Apology accepted. You weren't thinking clearly and I have missed my friend." Rin rose to her tip toes and gently placed a kiss on Obito's cheek. She stepped back, enjoying the flush rising up his neck. "Friends?"

Obito's smile shifted from hesitatant to brilliant. "Friends." With a jaunty wave, her friend was gone.

Rin's fingers rubbed absently at her tingling lips long after he'd gone, a half-smile appearing and disappearing.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

It's short, way shorter than usual for me. But it isn't the main thrust of the fic and it won't fit with the next chapter at all as I'm skipping forward. I'm still torn about how far to time skip. Until I decide, this will be it. I wrote a post-chunin exam 1996 chapter but may insert another arc between now and there. I like daddy angst and this fic needs more of it. ;)

Peace!


	8. Nepotism

**Chapter 6 - Nepotism**

April 3, 1994

Standing in front of the Hokage Tower, Naruto walked himself through the eight steps of Uzumaki battle meditation. Once he felt calm and centered, he entered the tower and climbed to the outer chamber of the Hokage's office. Oftentimes he would just breeze on through if the executive assistant didn't flag him to stop, but this wasn't a visit to his dad, it was a visit to his Hokage.

"You here to see your father?" the chuunin behind the desk asked.

Naruto scowled, "I'm here to see the Hokage if he has an opening."

"A professional visit then, let me tell him you're here."

Moments later he was ushered forward and sealed into the familiar office, with its stacks of paperwork. His father looked wary, resigned. Naruto stood at attention, chest squared, legs straight. "I would like to request assignment to a team for entry in the chuunin exams in Suna. My Sensei has nominated me for three straight exams."

"Absolutely not, I have a B-rank that needs an extra hand. You'd do well with it. We're somewhat shorthanded because of the exams coming up." Minato offered the mission scroll, but Naruto didn't take it, his meditation had already failed him.

"What do you mean, I can't attend the chuunin exams in Suna? I couldn't attend the exams in Whirlpool because there would be too many Iwa participants. I couldn't attend the exam in Konoha because your enemies would expect it and there might be assassination attempts. When do we stop acting like I'm a child and start trusting me to look after myself? Do I have to stay a genin for the rest of my life?"

"Naruto, I field promoted you earlier today. You've been doing B and C ranks for almost a year now. You field record is exemplary. Not everyone goes through the exams for promotion." Minato offered the scroll again.

Naruto took the scroll but shook his head. "This is a cop out. It isn't fair."

"How old are you? Where in the academy did they cover fairness? Twelve year olds die in this profession of ours. Facing death on missions will happen, but you won't be facing death over something as trivial as an EXAM."

"You're paranoid, and this isn't a Kage decision. The Kazekage let his kids participate in the last chuunin exam. You're telling everyone that you're afraid and I'm weak. Do you really think I'm weak?" Naruto clenched his fists so tight his fingers ached.

Minato leaned forward and massaged his temples. "You aren't paranoid if they're really out to get you. The Kazekage isn't hated the way I am. In the last great war, I was our weapon of mass destruction. It was my face and hands that killed their brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. Their hatred for me is personal and immediate, but they can't touch me. You on the other hand are still learning, still vulnerable."

"I can handle myself against other genin and chuunin, even if they hate you and by extension me," Naruto countered.

"I'm going to tell you a bit of the intelligence I have for the last two exams and then I want you to put yourself in my place. The exam in Whirlpool, every blond leaf ninja entered was killed in the second round, and not by other genin. They were executed by ANBU plants on the off chance that they might be my unnamed heir. We were more careful in Konoha and no one died, but there were at least three assassins identified by our ANBU. You've been in four village's bingo books since you were two, Namikaze heir, blond male, likely blue eyes. Would you like to see the last one we captured?" Minato extracted a small black book from an intricately sealed scroll. He tossed the book across the desk at Naruto. "The fact that neither your picture or your name is in that book is a victory for me. Aren't you going to look?"

Naruto visibly gathered himself, but made no move to peruse the black book with an Iwa mark on the cover. His posture returned with his calm and he faced his Hokage like the ninja that he asked to be treated as.

"You will maintain a low profile. You will accept your field promotion like a professional. You will stop with this puerile tantrum and locate two more chuunin for that mission I just handed you. Am I understood?"

"Yes sir." Part of Naruto wanted to keep railing about fairness, but the bigger part knew his father was right. He knew back when they first banned him from the exam in Whirlpool that he would never sit a chuunin exam. He just needed to accept it.

"And Naruto, you're not weak. I know that. You have nothing to prove."

Only nodding in reply, Naruto exited out the window. Racing along the rooftops he focused on locating a quiet place to breathe. Maybe his father thought he had nothing to prove, but Naruto knew differently. He was the Hokage's son, not a genius, not special, and he would never get a chance to stand alone and at least prove his competence.

Pausing in his sprint, Naruto spotted a distinctive shock of white hair crouching just outside the women's bath house and he smirked. Ero-Sennin could be counted on to provide a distraction if not a sympathetic ear. Naruto dropped from the roof and sidled over to his lecherous godfather. "Tsunade is going to kill you one of these days. She's just around the corner you know."

Jiraiya jerked back, looking around for any sign that his busty teammate had spotted him. "Hey Naruto, thanks for the warning. Want to be my lookout for the rest of the day? I have a deadline coming up and inspiration is floating just over this fence. Or you could fake a sniffle and get Tsunade to take you to the hospital?"

Naruto waved the scroll he hadn't opened. "I have a mission."

"Oh well." Jiraiya threw an arm around Naruto's shoulders and started putting some distance between himself and the bath house before he could be identified by Tsunade in a no-Jiraiya zone. "Shouldn't you be headed to the chuunin exams? You're getting old for a genin. You're what, thirteen?"

"Fourteen! I'm banned from the exams, again. Then to put the issue to rest, Dad field promoted me for my service over the last year." Naruto didn't bother hiding his annoyance.

"You don't see the intel. that crosses his desk. Try to forgive him. He wants you alive to make jounin." Jiraiya snatched Naruto's mission scroll and opened it. "You're supposed to do this by yourself?"

"No, I'm supposed to recruit a couple of chuunin to assist. Why? Is it interesting?" Naruto snatched the scroll back. "Guard duty."

"I'll be your backup," Jiraiya offered. "What do you say?"

"This is completely below your pay grade," Naruto said with a puzzled frown. "But if you want to, sure. You can help me work on the Rasengan while we travel."

"All right kid, we'll meet at the north gate tomorrow morning, oh nine hundred hours?" Jiraiya suggested. "And I'll file our departure time with the mission desk." He snatched the scroll back.

Watching his godfather stride away, Naruto couldn't help feeling that he'd missed something important.

* * *

Three shuriken struck a battered wooden target in a neat row. With a bored flick of his wrist, Sauske launched half a dozen more to create a neat star pattern. His friend, Naruto didn't offer to join the throwing weapons practice, he was too busy pacing and ranting.

"Let me get this straight," Sasuke started, "your father banned you from the chunin exams again, and he field promoted you so the issue is settled permanently. You really let him get away with that?"

"What was I supposed to do? He's the Hokage and he thinks I'm useless. If he thought he could get away with it, he'd make me work a desk at the Hokage tower, under a false name just in case."

Sasuke offered him a sack of sharp kunai. "Take some frustration out on the target log. You'll feel better. Trust me, when my father is being unreasonable, I murder the log and I feel like a new man."

Naruto accepted the projectiles and did his best to split the log with a flurry of angry blows. "You want to know the worst part? My mom agrees with him."

"No, the worst part is you were the last genin in our graduating class to get promoted and you never got to show your stuff in a chuunin exam, so everyone who hasn't trained with you or worked with you in a tight situation thinks you're some soft child riding his father's coattails to a rank he doesn't deserve." Sasuke crossed his arms and waited for Naruto to explode and vent some more. He wasn't trying to be cruel, but a man needed to hear the truth from his friends.

Naruto straightened and took a deep calming breath. The Uchiha's private training ground was quiet and tree shaded. The wind blew through, the only moving thing for a long moment. A slow smile spread over his face, and Naruto laced his hands together behind his head. "You think this might buy me enough emotional blackmail to get the hiraishin out of the old man?"

It was typical of Naruto, shrugging off his anger and disappointment in a moment, embracing some manufactured bright side to his problem. If baffled Sasuke, who had never properly learned to let anything go. "What happened to your righteous indignation? The glass is always half full with you, dobe. You need to learn to hold a grudge." Sasuke strolled forward to retrieve his weapons.

"If we were both brooding, Uchiha geniuses, life might get boring, teme." Naruto aped his best Sasuke-smirk and closed-off, arms-crossed pose. "Woe is me, my brother's a bigger genius and won't stop picking on me."

"I don't brood!" Sasuke snapped. "A bit of introspection, and you think I'm brooding. And Itachi is sadistic."

Naruto pretended to wipe a tear. "A misunderstood genius."

"You're provoking me? If you wanted to spar, you could have just asked." Sasuke dropped the pouch of thrown weapons and began circling his friend.

"You fight better when you're annoyed, and I want a challenge."

* * *

If Naruto had known exactly what guarding the proprietor of the Golden Fan in Port City would entail, he would not have been surprised at Jiraiya's enthusiasm for the mission. He also never would have agreed to take the old pervert. Naruto knew he was in for a long mission the moment they stepped through the entrance.

Beautiful girls with painted faces and silk kimonos in every color of the rainbow moved about. Some poured tea, others danced, or sang or played shamisen. A bouquet of feminine perfection, Naruto shook his head and groaned. "You knew."

Jiraiya didn't bother to answer. He waved vaguely at Naruto. "Let's find the proprietor and get work settled so we can get to the pleasure as soon as possible."

"I'm going to be doing this mission entirely by myself," Naruto muttered under his breath.

The proprietor, Ito Sara, turned out to be an older women, with steel grey hair, and remnants of the beauty she must have been still lingering about her now wrinkled face. She escorted them to her private salon and settled behind a clean, shiny calligraphy desk. "You will be providing security for my ladies during the annual flower festival. Last year, the celebration got out of hand and the wrong element disrupted operations. We were shut down for almost a week. This year, we will not be closed for a moment of the tourist season."

"Great, we will guard the ladies very carefully," Jiraiya agreed with a satisfied grin.

Sara's brow furrowed. "I don't like your tone. You are not a customer of this establishment and you will maintain a professional distance from my employees. Any failure to do so will result in a breach of contract. This is not a brothel. It is a tea house!"

Naruto shot Jiraiya a withering glare before quickly shaking their employer's hand. "We'll keep our distance. When do we start?"

* * *

Author's Note:

I dubbed this the NOT-Chuunin exam arc. It should be another one or two chapters, probably. And there will be some action, not that I'm good at writing it. It will probably be action avoiding techniques for me, writing around the fights in a vague flurry of superficial descriptions.

Happy Halloween! :)


	9. The Tea House of Death

**Chapter 7 - The Tea House of Death**

Like most missions, guarding a tea house during a festival entailed a lot of alertness, watching and waiting. Naruto quickly learned the flow of the establishment. The women out front were geisha, not prostitutes or courtesans even. Some of the tourists seemed confused about the difference and Naruto became quite skilled at spotting the ignorant before they started propositioning the ladies. The front room with the entertainers was literally only the surface of the establishment.

Kitchens and dressing rooms serviced the entertainers and guests. Farther back in the compound the training geisha could be found. An intricate garden separated the training areas and barracks from the posh, dream world of the geisha's stage. Naruto rather liked the gardens and the koi pond especially.

As much as he would have liked to enjoy the festival when Jiraiya was on duty, he didn't dare leave the old man completely unsupervised. He'd just been promoted for his field record, failing missions would not help his damaged reputation, so he stayed close, slept a bit and tried to remain alert.

It wasn't his shift when the first real disturbance happened, but he was there to feel the disruption in his perimeter seal and he arrived first. A dozen very drunk, very large men were prying at a board in the rear fence. Naruto couldn't tell if they were breaking in or trying to make a peep hole but he shushined into their midst and knocked the man with the tools to the ground.

"This is private property." Naruto made it a point to smile nonchalantly at these men. He wouldn't turn their encounter into a fight unless they forced it. The men made to circle him but Naruto leapt up onto the fence edge. "It's time to move along. I don't want to hurt you."

"It's a wee baby ninja," one of the men taunted. "Ito hired a baby ninja to protect her whores."

Dropping his smile or any semblance of congeniality, Naruto launched four precision kunai. The knives effectively ripped the crotch out of four of the men's pants, exposing them to varying degrees. "There aren't any whores here. This is a tea house. The next volley will slice flesh."

Before he finished his warning half the men had already fled into the night. The man with the tools and the man who had taunted Naruto remained behind. The man with the tools met Naruto's gaze, his eyes seemed more clear and sober than anyone else who remained. Grey streaked brown hair framed a ruined face twisted by a river of burn scars. He smiled at Naruto, a cold, pleased expression that rippled his scars hideously. "Get out of here!" he shouted at his friends. "Before the wee baby ninja castrates you all. He's a chuunin at least. Run!" The other drunks took his warning to heart and scattered into the night.

But the scarred man didn't run. He lingered behind, staring up at Naruto, that twisted smile in place.

"You need to clear the area as well," Naruto commanded.

"When I was a younger man, I wore a Hitai-ate. You wear the leaf symbol. You remind of that time." He turned away, his gait limping and uneven, promising that more scars and old poorly healed injuries hid under his clothes.

Naruto felt a little bad that he had pushed the older man down now that he could see him moving. He had helped disperse the crowd peacefully, but the old guy had also been aiding a mob in breaking and entering. Naruto reset his perimeter seal and slipped quietly back behind the fence. In his haste to get away, he didn't see the old man cast a final hateful look back at him, or hear his rasped declaration. "I know who you are."

* * *

Jiraiya rarely gave the impression of being alert or on guard. It served his role as a spymaster well that he could monitor a situation while appearing to be simply ogling busty ladies and drowning in sake. It hurt his feelings a bit when he realized that Naruto really didn't trust him to do his job, but rather than correct the kid's misconception, he let him run himself ragged and continued to enjoy the view inside the tea house.

A few hours after breaking up a gang at the rear fence, Naruto slipped in front of Jiraiya to shift-change. "Not that you're likely to move from that spot, but you're off for the next six hours. I'll be keeping a watch from the main entrance primarily with a few perimeter runs to check on things periodically. Anything happen on your watch?"

Jiraiya shrugged and sipped his sake. "You broke up a little mob at the back fence around midnight. There were thirteen of them, mostly civilians, but one with the chakra coils of a shinobi. The shinobi was crippled, probably retired judging by the damage I picked up on. The kunai to crotch approach to crowd dispersal was pretty amusing."

His eyebrows shot up and Naruto stepped back. "You were there?"

"You may be a chuunin kid, a good one even, but I'm Jiraiya of the Sannin, Toad Sage, and spymaster. I know about the punks last night and the drunks two days ago. I know about the perv with the camera. Hell kid, I know how much you've slept and how closely you've been watching me. As for the sleep, you haven't had enough. So, I'm going to take an extra shift and you're going to rest. And then we're going to continue this mission like partners." Jiraiya poured a small amount of sake into a bowl and passed it to Naruto. "Sip slowly he recommended."

For the first time since arriving in Port City, Naruto took Jiraiya's advice. He sipped slowly and managed to finish the fiery beverage without coughing or sputtering. Sitting together, Jiraiya explained a bit of his spymaster skills, the art of appearing useless and disinterested while you learned everything worth knowing. "Now go sleep, you'll be sharper for it."

"I'm sorry for not trusting you. You just seemed so completely oblivious, and I can't fail, not right after that stupid promotion." Naruto stood, still steady on his feet after the small amount of alcohol. "You understand?"

"Did you hear that old retired shinobi? He called you a chuunin. You aren't wearing a vest or anything else to indicate rank. He judged you based on your presence and your skills, and he wasn't just some civilian. Sleep on that kid, and stop worrying so much about what everyone thinks of you. People that know you, know you work for everything you've gotten. Now, I don't want to see you for at least eight hours. Sleep. I've got this."

* * *

Once Naruto calmed down and let Jiraiya pull his weight without supervision, the mission became simpler. The proprietor, Ito-sama, had even warmed to the old pervert when she found that he was not only willing to obey the basic rules of the tea house, but also willing to pay the exorbitant fees to eat and drink there when he wasn't working.

Before their final shift change at the end of the contract, Naruto slid into the seat across from Jiraiya and accepted his now customary small swig of sake. "You know my mother will murder you if she finds out you gave me this, even if it is just an eighth of an ounce."

"You're growing up and you have to build a little tolerance to alcohol. Might as well start. Quiet shift?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yeah, as if you didn't know. You already taught me my lesson. Jiraiya knows everything, even if you never seem to see him leave his bar stool." Naruto managed to not make a face swallowing.

"Older ninja than you have taken much longer to figure that out." One of the serving girls brought another bottle of sake, but Jiraiya waved her away. "You ever consider an apprenticeship? Now that you're a chuunin, you could."

"You offering?" Naruto asked. He did his best to play it cool and not dance in excitement at the prospect.

"I see potential." Jiraiya scratched his chin speculatively. "It would do you some good too, get the Hell out of the village, go off grid. I could teach you to be a spymaster, introduce you to my sources."

"What about sage training? Dad became hokage and never finished, but he talks about it sometimes." He practically bounced, unable to properly enunciate his excitement at the prospect of maybe achieving something his dad hadn't already done and done better than Naruto could ever hope to. "I could actually finish it."

"That would mostly be between you and the toads, but yeah, that would be part of it." Jiraiya had barely gotten the words out before Naruto was on his feet, then hugging his godfather.

"When do we start? Do we even have to report back to the village after this mission? We could just send a toad with our mission report and get going."

"There is always a chance your father won't approve the assignment, and he will have to sign off." Jiraiya hated to see how the kid slumped at the prospect. "Hey, I'm persuasive and this is a good thing for you and the village and even me. Teaching keeps me sharp, and I haven't done any teaching for a few years now."

"Not since my dad. Is that why you want to teach me? Do you think I'm like him?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya laughed and poured the last of the sake into Naruto's bowl. "You are absolutely nothing like your dad. Except for the ways you're exactly like him." Without giving Naruto a chance to question that non-answer, Jiraiya left the table.

Snorting in annoyance, Naruto finished the sake in a large gulp that left him sputtering and coughing. He drug himself upstairs to bed, still confused about Jiraiya's motives, now conflicted about following another path his father had already taken.

Sleeping deeper than a ninja on a mission should ever allow himself. Naruto was jarred awake by a medium sized toad bouncing on his back. "Wake up," the orange amphibian croaked. "Jiraiya wants you alert. There's an attack, and they're ninjas."

In only a moment, Naruto was on his feet and slipping into his sandals. "Where are they? I'll back him up."

"He doesn't need backup. He needs you out of sight and alert for danger." The toad lingered only a moment after dispensing his message before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Naruto stared at the spot where the toad had vanished for a long moment. He was the junior member of this team and if Jiraiya wanted him to stay back, he would follow orders, but that didn't mean he couldn't find a vantage on the fight. The old man might need his help, whether he realized it or not.

Naruto didn't even make it to the window before the fight found him. A flurry of kunai shattered the glass, one scoring a glancing blow to his shoulder. Naruto didn't wait for whoever was throwing knives to throw anything else. He launched himself out the window and hit the ground running. His enemy wasn't immediately visible and he needed to get to a defensible position that wouldn't put civilians at risk.

It became quickly apparent that the enemy wasn't interested in the tea house or Jiraiya. He was hunting Naruto and this enemy wasn't a genin or a chuunin. Leading the enemy away from the civilians had seemed like a good idea when Naruto vaulted over the back fence. After a fifteen minute sprint into the woods in which the enemy ninja had slipped past every pre-set defense Naruto had woven into the perimeter, he was starting to see a problem with his plan. He had distanced himself and the enemy from the civilians and Jiraiya. Dodging kunai had him literally running in a circle when he realized that this ninja wasn't just hunting him; this ninja was playing with him. Naruto skidded to a stop behind a tree, another volley of kunai embedding in its bark with solid thwacks. He drew a summoning seal with a steady hand but before he could bite his thumb he had been pinned to the ground by a rather large ANBU who bore the ominous stylize hexagon that signaled Iwa on his shoulder.

The ninja efficiently ruffled his way through Naruto's supplies until he found the emergency kunai his father always commanded he keep on him. The ANBU grew still. He stared skeptically at the rite attached to the blade. "We've finally got you. I knew if it was really you, you'd have one. Maybe if you'd thrown it before you ran, you might have survived this encounter." He carefully stowed the throwing knife in his vest pocket. Using a plain kunai, he cut a single straight line in Naruto's cheek. Though Naruto bucked and struggled, the line didn't waver. The ANBU was like stone, and the hold he'd bound Naruto in locked his hands from making seals. "After I've written my brothers' names on your face and cut your heart out of your chest, I'm going to throw this special kunai of yours. I want your father to see what I've done to you while you're still warm."

Why hadn't he thrown his kunai? Would his father be mad to know he hadn't even thought of it? Where was Jiraiya? Am I really going to die like this? Naruto refused to stop struggling though his captor seemed barely to notice. Though the man was slicing open his face, he refused to cry out.

"If Jiraiya of the Sannin wasn't so close I'd take more time with your suffering." Jerking Naruto's hands over his head, the ANBU made a superficial cut down Naruto's writhing abdomen. "I'm going to gut you now."

Suddenly the ANBU listed to the side and his unbreakable hold faltered. Naruto didn't see what happened to knock the crazed man down, but he didn't hesitate at the small opening. He snatched a kunai from the pocket of the man's vest and plunged it into his neck. He aimed for and severed the carotid, showering himself in warm sticky blood. The man was on him in a moment, choking the life from Naruto, even as he bled to death from above.

Remarkably quickly, the man's fingers went slack and the flow of blood slowed. Naruto shoved at the now dead weight pinning him down. Gracelessly, he scrambled back looking for another enemy, looking for the ally who bought him his opening.

"Would you like me to seal your injuries? Those marks on your face will scar if you don't get immediate attention."

Naruto spun toward the voice, holding his still dripping kunai at the new arrival. A middle aged woman leaned against a tree. "Do you remember me Naruto? I'm Kakashi's friend, Sumire. I sealed his eye for him."

"I don't need a seal." Naruto was proud of himself for not shaking, though his voice was gravelly from his brief throttling. "Thanks anyway."

"You needed a sealed healer though." Sumire crossed to the clearing and the dead Iwa ninja. She rolled him over and pointed to his bleeding, oddly bent left knee. "I canceled his seal for you. It was holding his knee together."

She stared up at him, her dark eyes searching. Naruto didn't like how she looked at him; it was almost hungry.

"Sealed healers don't take sides. Why would you help me?"

"We've always taken sides, Naruto. You all just can't discern the pattern. Are you sure you don't want a seal?" She smiled and looked away when he shook his head again. "Very well, no seal tonight. Be safe, Naruto. I see so much in the pattern your life could take. You could help us if you would."

"I need you to back away from the Iwa ninja and let me search him." Naruto was careful to keep at least an arm's length distance from Sumire.

"There may be injured people at the tea house that need me. I'll leave you to your work. It was quite good to see you again, Naruto." Moving as silently as a ghost, the sealed healer disappeared into the trees.

Searching through the enemy ninja's belongings, Naruto quickly reclaimed his stolen hiraishin blade and everything that might be of interest to Konoha's intelligence department. His movements sharp and clinical, he rolled out a scroll and using a sharp kunai he sliced through the man's neck at the atlantoccipital joint, efficiently separating the man's head from his neck. It was remarkably clean, there wasn't much blood left to drip out at this point. Careful not to disturb the man's mask, Naruto sealed his head for delivery with his belongings.

* * *

Jiraiya circled the three Iwa ninja who had stormed the tea house in a frontal assault, they were unconscious and restrained. They didn't fit with the mission and he had a bad feeling that they hadn't come for the girls, but for revenge against a certain blond student of his. Fortunately, Naruto hadn't been out and about when the excitement started. As much as he hated to leave his prisoners unguarded, he need to make sure Naruto hadn't found any extra attention while he was distracted.

He hadn't even taken a step toward the room where Naruto had been resting, when a redheaded ninja vaulted over the fence to his right. Jiraiya was a moment from attacking the new arrival when he realized it wasn't a redhead; it was a bloody, battered Naruto. He nodded at Jiraiya, an impossible amount of blood dripping from his hair and clothes. "Is everything under control then? I might need some first aide."

Once alone, Jiraiya stripped Naruto down looking for injuries. He noted the bruising to his neck and the cuts on his face. After rinsing the blood and dirt away, it became apparent that the majority of the carnage had come from someone besides Naruto. It wasn't until he was wrapped in a large white towel and Jiraiya was helping him clean the cuts on his cheeks that Naruto began to shake. He should have died. The only thing separating him from death had been luck and a sympathetic healer.

"You ready to tell me what happened?" Jiraiya asked. He daubed at the deep lacerations, aware of how painful the field antiseptic could be, but Naruto didn't flinch or complain. The kid had a healthy dose of shock setting in if he had to guess.

"An assassin was going to gut me and then summon my father to find me like that. But I got lucky while he was carving my face, and I killed him instead. I got really lucky." The shaking in his hands was getting worse, spreading, his whole body trembling.

Jiraiya stopped cleaning and looked Naruto in the eyes. "Life and death comes down to luck more than half the time. Be glad you were able to take advantage when luck went your way." Jiraiya fished a pill out of his bag and shoved it in Naruto's mouth. "Swallow. You can't go into shock in the field especially right now." Finishing up his cleaning quickly, Jiraiya began unpacking bandages. "You want to look at the damage before I cover it up?"

Though he was still shaking, Naruto nodded. He walked to the bathroom and winced at what he saw. Three lacerations carved through each cheek, almost all the way through. Naruto got the feeling that if he pushed hard with his tongue it would slide through the laceration. Talking hurt his wounds, so Naruto just retook his seat so Jiraiya could finish. He wasn't sure what was in the pill the old man had given him but the shaking in his limbs had subsided and the world felt more focused.

"You sure you don't want me to throw the hiraishin kunai. Your father would want to know what happened and he could get you home and to a real hospital faster."

"Hurry up," Naruto commanded. "I don't need my father to get home. The danger is passed."

"If you're sure." Jiraiya smeared antimicrobial salve into the cuts and taped thick bandages over each cheek. "Get dressed, kid. We're leaving within the hour."

Naruto nodded but he twisted back from the bathroom door. "You're still going to take me as your apprentice, right?"

"That's the plan." As soon as Naruto had sealed the bathroom door, Jiraiya dropped his head into his hands and mentally walked himself through the steps that had very nearly gotten Minato's only kid killed. He would have to be very careful if Naruto was going to travel with him, but it was still a good idea. The world wasn't waiting for him to grow up. The kid had to get stronger fast, and Jiraiya knew how to make ninja strong.

* * *

Author's Note:

Minato should have just let the kid take a chuunin exam, right? This arc has been fun. It should wrap up next chapter.


	10. Wrath

**Chapter 8 - Wrath**

The mission report started typically enough in Minato's opinion. Jiraiya ran through the basics about guarding the tea house, a boring recitation that Naruto had yet to comment on though he featured prominently in many of the confrontations described. Silence had never been typical from his son and it was beginning to concern him.

"Why don't we skip to the part where Naruto got bandaged up? Are you badly injured son?" Minato asked.

"I'm okay. Hurts to talk," Naruto rasped.

"He refused to head over to the hospital while I turned in our mission report. He got a couple of scrapes and bruises from an Iwa ANBU. I think he wanted to make sure I got that part right. See Naruto here killed the ANBU all by himself, but he hasn't told me the details. I think he was saving that for you." Jiraiya stood and tossed his written report on Minato's desk.

"You let an Iwa ANBU get close enough to touch my son?" Minato asked, any semblance of detachment gone. "Where were you when he was fighting an ANBU?"

"I was fighting three jounin and trying to protect a rather lot of civilians and property. The mission wasn't to babysit Naruto. He doesn't need that." Jiraiya nodded to Naruto and stepped up to the window. "Should I stay or go Hoakge-sama?"

Minato glowered at his former sensei and gestured for the man to leave. "Out, but don't leave the village. We aren't through discussing this." He turned back to Naruto, his glower setting into a concerned frown. "You killed an ANBU?" Minato asked.

Naruto nodded. "Got really lucky. I wrote it out for you." Rather than continue to speak, he gave his dad three scrolls in succession. "Report. ANBU's head. ANBU's gear."

As much as he wanted to read the account in Naruto's mission scroll, he was more concerned about his son's injuries. Crouching in front of him, Minato gestured to the bandages on Naruto's face. "Can I look?"

Naruto took a small step back. "I'll just go get patched up now that the report is in." He had expected Jiraiya to ask about the apprenticeship after the mission report and that was what Naruto wanted to be present for. He wanted to be there to make his case in favor before his dad could shoot it down. In retrospect, he should have believed the Sanin when he said today would not be the day to ask.

"Fine." Minato shrugged. He stuffed Naruto's mission report scroll in his pocket. "Let's go see Tsunade. Don't argue either. I'll make it an order if I have to. March."

"You are not coming with me." Naruto shook his head, completely horrified. His daddy escorting him to the hospital, the mental image made his head ache.

"You either show me here, or I'm walking with you there. Your choice."

"Fine," Naruto echoed his father's less than enthusiastic response. "It's not as bad as it looks." Reaching a hand up, Naruto carefully peeled the bandages from his cheeks.

Minato's heart clenched and his expression went blank. It took all his self control not to surrender to his rage at the sight of his son's mangled face. Three parallel lines carved into the body of the mark were a signature of a trio of Iwa ANBU that called themselves the three brothers. He had killed two of them during the war. It didn't take a genius to guess who had tried to kill his son or why.

"I won't walk with you, but I am meeting you there. Go to the hospital now and request Tsunade. Those wounds need attention if you don't want your face to rot off." Minato paused and tossed after his retreating son. "That is an order."

* * *

Sometimes Tsunade felt like she spent her entire life dealing with traumas. Being a medic in a ninja village there were colds and chicken pox and even the occasional dermatitis, but more often than not she had a burn or a laceration or a penetrating stab wound. Today was no exception.

These lacerations were only a day old, but they were deep and the field dressing hadn't adequately apposed the wound edges. Her mentor used to tell her that lacerations healed from side to side not end to end, so if she could get them together well she would save her patients pain and scarring and time away from their livelihood. Using her chakra like a scalpel, she debrided the wound edges until a slow flow of blood could be seen. She began sewing muscle to muscle, tendon to tendon, skin to skin. Gently her chakra flowed along the needle and the suture, suffusing the tissue with life and growth. When she was finished six neat rows of sutures demarked the lacerations that would heal into small, linear pink scars. As they adorned a pair of cherub cheeks, she thought that they rather looked like whiskers.

The boy belonging to the cheeks and the lacerations still slept from the anesthetic she'd given him. Rather than reverse the drug she left a nurse to monitor him and stepped into the hall. Two worried parents awaited her verdict. They knew he wasn't in any life threatening danger, but having your fourteen year old disfigured wasn't exactly an ideal situation either. "He is doing fine. It looked worse than it was. Jiraiya's field dressing was adequate and the wound margins came together well. There will be some scarring but nothing terrible. I'm going to let him wake on his own from the anesthetic."

"I'm going to sit with him." With a single glance at her silent, unmoving husband, Kushina left to be with her son.

Tsunade had known two different hokages in her time and fancied herself quite close to each in her own way. She recognized Minato's stillness for the rage it contained. She was a healer of the body not the mind or the soul and she couldn't cut the rage out of him, so she sat quietly beside him instead. "I despise war," she said eventually. "It hones our hate. It kills our children."

"We aren't at war, Tsunade," Minato said. He didn't shift his pose or even look her way.

"We aren't? Good, I thought you might have declared war while I was in there." Tsunade could feel killing intent building in her hokage, but she didn't stop poking the angry bear. "You knew they wanted to kill him to hurt you. It isn't news. Before you write to Oonoki demanding an explanation, you need to be ready to be political or we will end up in war."

"Maybe a good war is what we need. We'll fight until there isn't any village in Iwa to hate us. I'll just kill them all." Minato brought his fist down on the armrest of the chair splintering it.

"Maybe I'd let you get away with making that call if they'd killed him, but Naruto isn't dead. You want to get him killed, start a war. That will get a lot of Konoha children killed." Tsunade stood and brushed a few stray splinters off her sleeve. "Consider this, your son just killed an Iwa ANBU. They won't be as quick to attack him if they start to think he's as deadly as his father."

"He's barely a chuunin. He isn't deadly. He got lucky." Minato rose until he was nose to nose with Tsunade.

"Then fix it. He has so much potential. Stop coddling him. You're going to protect him to death." Tsunade didn't take a single step back; she didn't budge an inch. "Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and myself had a little meeting earlier today. Jiraiya wants to train him. Let him."

"What makes you think I'm willing to trust anyone with him, especially Jiraiya after this?"

"If you try permanently assigning him to the village and keeping him within eyeshot for the rest of his life, Kushina will pack him up, decamp to Whirlpool, and you'll never see either of them again. I dare you to test the theory." Tsunade crossed her arms over her chest and waited for him to work it out for himself. "You can trust us, Minato. We're the best."

"I'm going to sit with my wife and my son now. We'll talk about this apprenticeship tomorrow after I've had a chance to consider it." Minato paused with his hand on the doorknob. "He does have a lot of potential. If I had more time, I could teach him properly, like a father ought to teach his son. Three legendary Sanin, maybe one of them should be Hokage?"

"I wouldn't say that around Orochimaru unless you mean it." Tsunade smirked. "As for me and Jiraiya, we know better."

* * *

The Iwa bingo book's entry on Naruto had changed. Instead of a brief inadequate description, a single color photo stared back. The text below the picture didn't offer a reward or give an order to kill. It simply stated the facts.

_Namikaze Naruto/Uzumaki Naruto_

_Son of Namikaze Minato, chuunin ninja; some skill at sealing; can summon toads_.

If the book gave an order to kill or offered a reward for killing Naruto at a time of peace, it would be reason enough to start a war. If Minato wanted he could start a war anyway. Iwa ninja attacked his son, scarred his face, and would have killed him if Naruto hadn't been exceptionally lucky. Political scrolls had already been traded between himself and Oonoki. The stone ninja claimed that they had been hired by a rival tea house to shut the Golden Fan down. Any causalities would have been incidental to the mission, not an act of revenge.

He could even explain the bingo book entry as a safeguard to try and prevent any unnecessary incidents between their villages.

It was Minato's choice, war or peace. He could accept the lies that would preserve peace and move on. He could accept the head of the ANBU as sufficient revenge for any cosmetic damage to Naruto. But it didn't feel like enough, especially after reading Naruto's account of what they had planned for him, gutted alive and presented to his father like a present.

His door opened and Kushina entered, silently crossing the room to stand across from him. "I know what you're doing. You can't start a war over a failed assassination attempt." She made no effort to read the diplomatic scrolls scattered over her husband's desk; instead she took a seat across from him and slouched despondently. "And Naruto already killed the bastard who hurt him, so you can't even ask for his head."

"Do you think I might feel better if I kicked Jiraiya's ass for not protecting him?" Minato asked.

Kushina shrugged. "I doubt it. Speaking of Jiraiya, I know about the plan to send Naruto away to train and I approve, but only if he brings him back to visit at least three times a year. I refuse to become a stranger to my only son."

"No decisions have been made on that front. Naruto is safer in the village. Until further notice, he won't be leaving the village." Despite Tsunade's prediction, Minato expected Kushina to agree with his conclusion.

She sat up straight, her expression hardening. "I don't think so. He's a ninja like us, and I refuse to baby him like that. It won't make him strong. Becoming strong will keep him alive, nothing else will suffice."

"Kushina, it's just for a while," Minato wheedled.

"Until it's safe? This world will never be safe for him. We make our parenting decisions together, right? I vote for training with the Sanin."

"This is a Hokage decision, not a parenting decision," Minato snapped.

"Bullshit." Kushina rose smoothly. "He will train with Jiraiya or you'll propose a reasonable alternative. And hiding in the village is not a reasonable alternative. I should never have let you ban him from the chuunin exams the first time. You just get more cautious, more paranoid. Your fear made them bold. You told your enemies he was your weakness. Of course they attacked him!"

Kushina knew she'd gone too far, said too much when Minato didn't argue back immediately. "I know it's my fault that he's a target. It makes keeping him safe my responsibility. Let me do my job."

"Keeping Naruto safe is our job, and I'm helping."

* * *

An explosion rocked the Hokage Tower, and ninja across the village scrambled to the scene. Before they could enter to help, the standard ANBU accompaniment to the tower turned them back. One of the many to arrive on scene, Obito scrambled forward, but Kakashi grabbed his arm and jerked him to the side. "We aren't under attack. Minato and Kushina are having an argument. Minato-sensei's ANBU are keeping everyone back while they work it out."

Another explosion heralded an ominous plume of black smoke from a hole in the tower roof. "Aren't we supposed to protect our Hokage?" Obito asked. "What is the fight about?"

"Jiraiya wants to take over Naruto's education," Kakashi said, a glimmer of consternation in his eyes. "I was sufficient sensei to get him to chuunin and taught him enough that he survived an assassination attempt by an Iwa ANBU, but I suppose it's time."

"Aw, Kakashi is jealous they're giving his former genin away," Obito crowed. "If it weren't for me, you'd never have passed those cute little midgets."

"I'm not jealous, and I've been on full deployment for ages. Training Naruto has fallen to others for months. I'm a bit surprised that they didn't even consult me. I was his genin sensei, you'd think they'd ask my opinion." A large chunk of the tower crashed into the ground, and the crowd shifted back.

"Seems they're too busy consulting each other," Obito said. "Want to get some dango? I'm meeting Rin."

"I have a mission, actually. When the smoke clears I'm filing my departure time with the mission desk and heading out. The two of you are?" Kakashi left the statement open and quirked his eyebrow suggestively.

"I don't kiss and tell, Hatake." Obito turned to leave. "But we're doing well."

* * *

Author's Note:

This arc keeps derailing my plans. Curse you arc! There will maybe be another short arc before the next main arc. A training arc. Haven't decided.

I meant to say something about the new story graphic back when I changed it. Kanji is pretty so I found the kanji for bad medicine and built the new graphic around that. Of course the Naruto is whiskerless because the Naruto in this fic didn't have whiskers and then this arc happened so now I need a new graphic again. But I'm too lazy to make one. Will update it if I feel creative later.


	11. Forging Steel

**Chapter 9 - Forging Steel**

* * *

Heating the Oven - I

* * *

Sitting quietly on a stool in her office while Tsunade removed his stitches, Naruto tried not to make a face at the itchy feeling of the suture sliding under his skin. After a few careful snips and tugs , she stood back, surveying her work. "Not bad. It almost looks intentional. How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine, ready to get back to work, but I'm only allowed to use our training ground at home until something is decided." For the last two weeks, his parents had done nothing but argue, occasionally brawl, then ignore one another. If it wasn't his future they were fighting about, he would have begged for a mission out of village until they'd solved the issue. Since his mother had threatened to desert the village and take him with her, Naruto wasn't allowed within two hundred feet of the village walls on principal.

"Not to get your hopes up, but they're pretty close to a compromise." Tsunade opened her door and jerked her head, encouraging him to exit. "Try to stay out of my surgery suite for a while."

"Shouldn't be a problem in my new role as mascot to the Konoha military," Naruto muttered. His father was expecting him home, but Naruto wandered toward the Uchiha compound. Sasuke wasn't there. He had been sent with Konoha's delegation to the chuunin exams, providing support and defense for the genin and their sensei. Since Suna was Konoha's ally, the village was obligated to send support chuunin.

The ANBU following him wasn't bothering with stealth. Naruto waved to the man in the rabbit mask, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and plodded home miserably.

Tsunade knew something about his parents coming to a compromise. Did that mean she was going to be part of the compromise? Had they decided to hand his training over to the medic Sanin? Naruto's forehead wrinkled. He would make a terrible medic ninja. Medics had to be brilliant. They had to know more about anatomy than the best places to stab or punch someone. They had to know how to put the broken things back together. The very idea of that training nauseated him.

Training under Tsunade would make his dad happy. She almost never left the village.

At home he found his parents' war had gone into a silent phase. His mother was sharpening kunai on the front stoop. His father had apparently retreated, probably to the Hokage tower to work for a while. Naruto noticed that Rabbit had gone invisible, not that his mother wouldn't know he was there somewhere. "Want help?" Naruto asked.

His mother looked his way and smiled, though the expression fell short of her eyes. "Yeah, grab a stack and get to it." Together they worked through the dull knives efficiently until the entire stock was razor sharp. "Up for some throwing practice?"

"Sure." Behind the house, Naruto and his mother took turns decorating their old battered training targets in increasingly elaborate patterns. When they'd used all their newly sharpened kunai, the targets looked rather like prickly porcupines. "Do you remember when I was four and you taught me how to hold a kunai."

"I remember that you refused to correct your grip until I told you your father would never let you start at the academy doing it wrong." Naruto took one of the now dulled kunai and scratched at the packed dirt of their training ground, forming the signs of a privacy seal. The ANBU wouldn't let it stand for long, but Naruto needed a personal word with his mother. He infused the seal with chakra and rocked back on his heels. "To clarify, last night, you weren't serious about abandoning the village. You were angry and saying things I know you didn't mean."

"I don't say things I don't mean, but it's not going to come to that. We've tentatively reached an accord. If it falls through, I won't let you be relegated to a desk or hidden behind walls. We would be welcome in Whirlpool. You'd be allowed to have a real life and a real career." Kushina's tight smile twisted. "Your grandfather always thought my marriage wasn't built to last, that your father and I were too different."

"I'm a leaf ninja, not a Whirlpool ninja. You know I can't leave." Naruto hadn't seen his parents this divided since he filed his no-seal paperwork. They had survived that and they would survive this. They had to. "You guys are going to be fine and I'm going to be fine. You said you reached an accord. Can you tell me about the compromise since it's about my life?"

"Let's wait for your dad. He may not be able to get the other parties to agree. Then it will be back to the drawing board."

"Other parties?" Naruto asked.

In that moment, Rabbit invaded the perimeter of the privacy seal. With a sigh, Naruto disrupted the seal and stuffed his hands back in his pockets. "Don't you love being treated like a prisoner in your own backyard," Naruto groused. "Let me know when Dad gets home." He stomped into the house and slammed the door behind him.

"Teenagers," Kushina said. She waved vaguely at the ANBU interloper and followed her son indoors.

* * *

Summoned to the Hokage's office, Naruto stood solemnly like a man at his own execution. He tried to imagine what life in the tiny village of Whirlpool would be like. What did Whirlpool ninja do for D-ranks? What did they call the village leader? His mother would try to force him to defect if their _compromise_ failed. Maybe they'd insist on sending him to a chuunin exam to keep the rank?

"I've found a sensei to intensify your training," Minato said. He strolled around his desk and gripped his son's shoulder. "He's the only person I trust at this stage of your career. You're exposed but you aren't yet elite. In a year, it won't be luck that you survive when facing an ANBU. In a year, you will be able to back up the reputation you've started to build by taking down one third of Iwa's three brothers."

"I get to train with Jiraiya?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"You'll be training with me." If Minato was expecting excited hugs or cheering, he was doomed for disappointment. The last time he had planned to help train Naruto, he had started with the best intentions, but the demands of his job had hindered the effort until they stopped trying.

"Joy," Naruto sighed.

"For the next year, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru will be serving as interim Hokages. Each has agreed to cover a four month stretch, taking leave of their personal projects and freeing me for my own. The council approved the leave of absence." Minato watched as his son's face dropped in shock. "Please contain your enthusiasm."

"You're going to train me for a year?" Naruto asked. "You won't be Hokage at all. Can I learn the hiraishin?"

"Kakashi has taught you the basics. I'm going to do my best to teach you everything I know. Jiraiya will likely take over for me when the year is up, but we're going to make significant progress together. I'm not going easy on you. The strong survive. The best protection is to be deadly. Are you ready to start?"

"I'm ready." A genuine smile bloomed on Naruto's face.

"Have you heard of crucible training?" Minato didn't return his son's smile. "This isn't going to be a fun year."

* * *

And the Flame Melts Iron - II

* * *

Almost a month into his year with his father, Naruto realized he wasn't ready. Kakashi taught in a laid back, disinterested way. He showed them things and let them figure it out in their own time. Minato was a different beast. He taught, then he tested, pushing for advancement, challenging his student to make the leap of understanding or suffer through the physical punishment of failure. Almost every day, sometimes twice a day, Naruto had to receive chakra enhanced healing from his father.

No, he wasn't ready.

But he loved it.

He was learning faster than he ever had in his life, advancing through jutsu and techniques. The biggest challenge so far had been the hiraishin. His father had warned him that it would likely take him more than a year to perfect it, that he would need to work on it every second he wasn't training other things. Naruto was determined to perfect the technique in under a year if he had to give up all sleep to do it.

"You have to be faster," Minato scolded. He pulled Naruto up from the ground and proceeded to attack again before he had his wind back. Naruto barely managed to get a half-defense up before his father had him on his back again. "Thanks to your mother, you have more chakra than three jounin, use it like I taught you. Channel it through your muscles and nerves. It can make you faster and stronger if you infuse it with the right intent and control. Try again, faster this time."

Naruto nodded, attempting the technique he'd been taught earlier in the week and failing again.

Kushina watched the sparing from a tree limb, wincing every time Minato laid his son out. The training tactic was dubbed the crucible when it was developed by the first Hokage-a year of isolation and submersion in training with an elite shinobi, no interaction with the outside world was permitted. Such brutal tactics were standard during wartime. They instigated faster advancement through necessity. As little as Kushina liked it, the last war wasn't over for her family, especially her son. She had agreed that this was the best way forward.

The tree to her right rustled gently and a boy nodded to her. She recognized the Uchiha, her student Sasuke, immediately. "You're trespassing," she said gently. "I know you and Naruto have a standing open invitation between you, but for the next year, he won't be available to anyone but that man down there. Part of the training is absolute seclusion. I'm not even allowed to visit. I'm staying with Tsunade."

Sasuke didn't look happy watching his Hokage beat the Hell out of his best friend. He averted his eyes, instead meeting the gaze of his sensei. "Did Naruto really kill an enemy ANBU?"

"He did," Kushina supplied tightly.

"We heard about it in Suna. I've wanted to ask him about it since I heard, but we can't talk for a year?" Sasuke frowned his annoyance. "This whole thing blows."

Kushina slapped him on the back of the head. "Watch your mouth, Uchiha. And get off this property already. I catch you on this property again while the training is in progress and I'll remove your man parts and feed them to you."

Without argument, Sasuke vacated the premises. He didn't think his sensei would actually castrate him, but he wasn't entirely sure. When they were on a mission as genin, he had seen her threaten a drunk man with a similar act. He was trying to violate a young girl but he didn't seem to think Kushina would really interfere. When she made her threat reality, Kiba had tossed his cookies and Hinata hadn't been able to watch. Sasuke had taken the moment as a lesson; Kushina-sensei rarely made threats she wouldn't carry out if pressed.

* * *

Vaporizing Impurities - III

* * *

"Six months since I've spoken to my husband or my son," Kushina sighed. "It's torture having them so close and not be able to approach them." She rested her head on her arms while Tsunade filled two small juice glasses with sake. "Am I a terrible mother?"

"You're not a terrible mother. You did the right thing." Tsunade downed her sake in one go. "I did a crucible when I was a girl. It made me strong."

"Minato and I fought bitterly to come to this decision. We never said sorry. What if he never forgives me for fighting him so hard, for threatening to leave him and take his son with me." Kushina sipped her alcohol, and cried like a hysterical civilian. "It's my baby's birthday and his father is kicking his ass, over and over to help him learn faster. Happy birthday Naruto."

Taking the sarcastic statement and running with it, Tsunade raised her glass. "Happy birthday Naruto. I hope you enjoy your present of strength and the freedom that will come with it."

Kushina clinked her glass with Tsunade, and managed to echo Tsunade with some sincerity. "To strength and freedom for my baby."

Across the village in training ground fifteen, panting and bleeding, Naruto had no clue it was his birthday. He was playing a favorite game of his fathers, hunt and evade. As usual, Naruto was evading. Despite three close calls, he was beyond his personal best, four days and nights without capture. The techniques his father had pounded into him were really starting to pay off. He could channel chakra into his muscles and nerves without thinking, accelerating his reactions exponentially. He could sink his chakra emanations so that he was imperceptible when not actively molding. He had started to get the hang of sensing subtle chakra fluctuations in the environment around him.

He had even learned to conceal his trap seals so that a jounin would find their low grade chakra hum invisible. His father still avoided the traps nine times out of ten, but he actually tripped one occasionally now.

A flicker of golden chakra warned him that he'd been found, and Naruto used his ace in the hole. He activated his first hiraishin rite and appeared in a previously scouted safe hole. It was his first live attempt at the jutsu and the sensation left him feeling wrenched and nauseated. He vomited into his safe hole and hoped he hadn't left a piece of himself behind.

In all his years as a ninja, Minato had never seen the hiraishin performed. When his son vanished with that signature instant of chakra aura, his heart swelled with pride and sped with worry. He had felt it a million times, that wrenching rush. The first few dozen jumps had been unpleasant to the point that he had been unable to move or speak for some time afterwards. His condition had so alarmed Jiraiya that the man had tried to talk him out of continued experimentation with the technique.

His incentive to find Naruto was only increased by the knowledge of his likely condition. His son's seals had made this game nearly impossible of late. Now that his seals were approaching invisibility, Naruto found it too easy to hide himself. He could vanish for long periods, and Minato had to wait him out. He could feel a chakra fluctuation to the west and followed that glimmer until it led him to his prize. It seemed Naruto had disrupted his own concealment seals with his landing.

Avoiding the large pool of vomit beside him, Minato crouched next to Naruto and lifted his twitching body from the cold ground. His son wasn't making any sense. His eyes were unfocused and he struggled vaguely in his father's arms. Minato could finally see why Jiraiya had wanted him to stop experimenting with teleportation in the early stages. Even knowing that this side effect would abate with usage and that the symptoms would fade in a few hours, Minato couldn't help worrying that his son was somehow permanently damaged.

He didn't dare teleport Naruto in his current condition. He raced home instead. Once safely inside, Minato gently settled his son into his bed and tucked him between the sheets. The crucible training regime had strict rules. Your relationship had to remain adversarial, no overt expressions of fondness, no kudos. In the moment, while his son couldn't possibly understand him, Minato leaned down and kissed his sweaty forehead. "I'm so proud of you. Happy birthday, Naruto."

* * *

Cool Down - IV

* * *

Kushina pushed open the gate to her home for the first time in a year. She had snuck in to watch the training early on, but as time passed, it was harder to watch when she couldn't approach them, and she stopped coming. Now that she could walk up to her men with impunity, she found herself terrified. She circled around the house, following the sound of sparing. The sight that greeted her was amazing.

Naruto and Minato were moving so fast, twin yellow flashes. She leaned against the porch rail, just watching them fight. Quite suddenly they stopped. Naruto's smile beamed and he tackled her into a bone crushing hug. "Mom."

Naruto looked back at his father and stepped out from between his parents. "If I'm free, I have some things to check up on. And I know you guys need to talk." He raised a hand to his father and vanished.

Kushina didn't want Naruto to leave, but he was right, his parents needed to talk. "He got so tall in a year," she said through a sob. "You did amazing work. He's so like you. I could barely tell you apart out there fighting."

"I'm still a little taller and he's the one wearing orange. Oh, and I'm still the one who wins in the end, but he gives one hell of a fight now," Minato said. He wasn't sure how to apologize to Kushina or to forgive her. She stopped a step from him, seemingly unsure what to say either. "I apologize for stunting Naruto's development by over-protecting."

"I apologize for threatening to desert the village and take your son with me," Kushina quickly replied.

Rather than keep talking, Minato closed the distance between them and kissed his wife passionately and possessively. A year apart had left him ready to forgive and forget. Judging by her enthusiastic response, she felt the same.

**Author's Note:**

Yes that was my _music montage_ training chapter. Couldn't you hear "Eye of the Tiger" playing in the background? There might be one more training chapter with Jiraiya. I don't feel like writing more training at the moment, but we'll see how I feel in a day or two. That last chapter received a decent response, so I decided to put this out a couple of days early.

Peace!


	12. Interlude - A Lesson Between Friends

**Interlude - A Lesson Between Friends**

Sasuke and Naruto had joked that your genin squad didn't matter, that you would weed some gardens, guard a few civilians, and move into the more significant role of chuunin without looking back. As twelve year olds often are, they were wrong about that. The people you sloughed through those menial tasks with became a sort of extended family. You never really shook off those relationships. Sitting around a table, eating barbecue with Sakura and Shino, Naruto laughed as they caught up on a year's developments.

Smirking prettily, Sakura wagged her finger at Naruto. "You have a new nickname by the way. I heard some Jounin using it earlier today when discussing your year of training with your dad. Want to guess what it is?"

"I know all about it," Naruto groaned. "Kakashi-sensei called me by it today. I swear he was laughing at me behind his mask."

Shino quirked a single eyebrow, an expression that asked his question for these two who knew him well. _Are you going to keep me in suspense all day or share the nickname already?_

"Whiskers," Naruto muttered unhappily.

Sakura giggled. "It's practically a family tradition for you. Your mom is the Habanero; your dad is the Yellow Flash. You should embrace the nickname. It isn't terrible and it harkens back to your signature kill. How many chuunin do you know who've killed an ANBU?"

"Whiskers though?" Naruto moaned. "It sounds like I'm a poorly shaved sailor."

"It has character," Kiba offered. "I approve."

"Seriously? Well I'm calling you Pinkie forever then, Sakura. " Naruto smirked at her sudden frown. "And as soon as I think of something appropriate, I'm giving you one too Shino."

"You've been torturing me with offensive stereotypical nicknames for as long as we've known one another," Shino remarked. At Naruto's puzzled frown, he continued. "Bug boy, mantis man, antenna head, creepy crawlie... I've survived your worst."

Others might have missed it in the deadpan delivery, but Naruto recognized a joke in there and laughed. "Okay Antenna Head it is."

"Since we're all free at the moment, I thought maybe we could do a mission together, for old time's sake," Sakura suggested. "We haven't all worked together since Shino made chuunin. Who knows when we'll be between missions like this again? What do you guys say? Team six rides again?"

"Can't, I'm leaving on an extended mission with Jiraiya in a few days. We'll be training and spying and probably visiting a lot of bath houses if I had to guess. It's a great opportunity." Naruto didn't like disappointing Sakura-chan. She still showed her emotions plainly, eschewing the blankness most ninja learned to project by this stage in their career. On cue, her face fell, and her lip jutted out in a girly pout. "I'm really sorry, Pinkie-chan."

Shino quietly excused himself, disappearing in the direction of the washroom. Oblivious to the privacy they'd been afforded by their always perceptive teammate, Naruto continued eating his dinner.

"It's okay. Be careful out there?" Sakura leaned a bit closer to Naruto and pecked his cheek quickly, a chaste kiss that could have been shared between siblings, but that set her blushing immediately. "For luck!" she qualified quickly when Naruto looked askance at her.

"I just spent a year training with my father. _Whiskers_ doesn't need luck," Naruto boasted. "But thanks." His chewing slowed and he cast another slow glance back at his former teammate. She had grown up quite a lot in the last year. Girls fell into a handful of mental categories for Naruto, civilians, ninja, family, and the dreaded fan-girls. Sakura had been a fan-girl but now she was a ninja and family. A new category of girl was forming for him as he sat and chewed slowly. Girls who weren't his mom who kissed him and Sakura was the first member of the club. "You know, as good luck kisses go, that was kind of a wimpy one."

Sakura, glared at Naruto. "Wimpy? What do you know about good luck kisses?"

"I don't know much about kissing at all. It wasn't covered at the academy and I've never had a chance to practice." Naruto pushed his plate back and took a long drink of water. "Want to try again? If I've learned anything in the last year, it's that practice makes perfect."

Sakura's flush turned positively magenta. "Are you making fun of me?"

"Nah, I'm asking my friend who is a girl if she wants to make out until we're good at kissing or bored with trying. What do you say?" It could go either way, Naruto knew. Sakura would either beat him upside the head and storm off, or she'd consent to experiment a bit. "If you think it's weird I won't be upset. You're just my only good friend who is a girl. I can't exactly practice this with Shino or Sasuke. I suppose I could read one of Jiraiya's books. They're supposed to be pretty informative..."

Sakura let Naruto ramble as she digested his offer. Back a couple of years ago when they first became genin, she would have jumped at the chance. She was immature and silly then and she hadn't learned what being a ninja really meant. Now Naruto was asking his old friend and teammate if she wanted to practice kissing. He might have been asking if she wanted to learn a new jutsu for all the emotional investment behind the request. That he felt safe enough with her to ask, was sort of endearing in a way.

Sakura understood that Naruto wasn't being intentionally hurtful or obtuse. Ninja graduated from the academy at twelve, when most kids start figuring out things like dating and kissing and eventually love. When you were thrust into the world and your focus became survival, some ninja failed to properly figure out the interpersonal or emotional maturity needed for a relationship. Sakura sighed to herself and refrained from punching Naruto. "That is a terrible pick up line. Repeat after me- Sakura, would you like to go out with me before I leave on my extended mission?"

Naruto paused for a long moment, then nodded with a grin. This wouldn't be a lesson in kissing, but in the social protocol to reaching kissing too. Sakura was so smart sometimes. "Sakura, would you like to go out with me before I leave on my extended mission?"

"Sure Naruto, I'd love to go on a date with you. I'm free tomorrow at six." Sakura placed a few bills on the table to cover her part of the check. "Tell Shino I said goodnight, would you?"

* * *

After consulting with Shino, Sasuke, and Kiba, Naruto determined that he should be freshly showered, teeth brushed and wearing clean clothes for his date with Sakura. The boys disagreed about whether he should bring flowers or if he ought to wear any light armor. After much debate Naruto decide 'no' to armor and flowers. It was a friend date and friends didn't bring each other flowers.

The woman who answered the door for Naruto was older and failed to smile at him. She surveyed him, arms akimbo before opening the door enough for him to enter. Slipping his sandals off he stepped inside. Did Sakura still live with her parents too? She never mentioned them if she did. "I'm Namikaze Naruto." He offered the older woman his hand and his most winning smile.

"You can call me Haruno-san." She shook his hand perfunctorily and left him standing in the entryway. "Sakura should be down momentarily. Wait here."

"Friendly sort," Naruto muttered. He studied the home from his limited vantage point and was surprised at how similar a civilian's home was to his own.

"Mom, have you seen my red sandals?" Sakura leapt over the second floor banister and streaked through the living room bare feet whispering over tile. She didn't even notice Naruto watching her scamper. "I swear they were in my closet and now they're gone." She was wearing a pretty red dress that somehow managed to not clash with her crazy pink hair. The dress fell well past her knees but a daring slit exposed her leg past mid thigh. Naruto appreciated the efficiency of the slit. If Sakura needed to fight she would be able to kick or run, and the view it afforded of creamy smooth leg wasn't too shabby either.

"Check the closet in the entryway," her mother shouted.

Naruto forced his eyes from the enticing red dress to his friend's face and smiled nervously. He suddenly wished he had brought flowers, something to distract from the awkward moment. "Hi Sakura. Ready to go?"

"Let me grab my shoes." Sakura disappeared into the closet and returned properly shod. "Where are we headed then?"

"Do you want to eat?" Naruto asked.

"I could eat," Sakura agreed. She laced her arm into his and let him lead the way. It was a friend date, but Sakura intended to do it right.

**Author's Note:**

There were some interesting reviews to the last chapter. A couple made me smile, one taught me something I definitely didn't know about Japanese surnames and the canon intention for Uzumaki/Namikaze. That was cool.

One reviewer noted that the title of the fic is off-putting. I'm open to suggestions on the title but have not really managed to think of anything better myself. Note that I titled the thing to begin with. Thus you can assume my best effort on that front is on the fic.

The next chapter is complete and is not Jiraiya training time. No more training. Time skip and main arc next. I'm trying to keep up a chapter or interlude every week pattern and have managed it for going on two months now. Go me ;)

Tentative prediction, but I don't think this fic is likely to run for more than twenty chapters. The main arc is tightly plotted. It should reach crisis and climax relatively rapidly.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving to any who celebrate it!


	13. All the Way

**Chapter 10 - All the Way**

October 1 1996

A dark-haired dark-eyed boy crept through the shadows, invisible to the untrained eye. His oblivious prey strolled through the park, hand in hand. They meandered without much purpose before settling on a bench. Holding hands quickly shifted to groping and kissing. Rolling his eyes, the boy in the shadows sped through some hand signs and a nice icy stream of water shot toward the in flagrante couple. At the last second the young man twisted, shielding his date from the water.

"What's your problem, Sasuke?" Naruto snapped. He shook water from his shaggy blond hair. "I was having a moment here."

"Just keeping you on your toes," Sasuke taunted. Naruto's former teammate and current date didn't like his prank or his tone if the throbbing vein over her eye could be trusted. "You and Sakura on your toes."

Sakura stormed past Naruto and managed to land a solid punch to the back of Sasuke's head. "You can keep Naruto on his toes when we aren't having a moment, Uchiha!"

Moving quickly to separate the two and avoid an all out brawl, Naruto wrapped an arm around Sakura's waist and flashed a conciliatory smile. "Are you hungry? I think we should all get a bowl of ramen."

"I didn't think Pinkie liked ramen." Sasuke smirked at the angry girl.

"Do not call me Pinkie. I'm a chuunin, just like you. Respect the vest." Sakura straightened her pale green blouse, picking at invisible lint. "The whole evening is just ruined. Naruto, call me when you get the Uchiha under control, okay?"

Sasuke waited through their quick goodnight kiss, his face blank.

"Seriously Sasuke, what's your problem? If it's your personal mission to protect my virginity, you should have come with me and Jiraiya for the last summer cause it's gone." Naruto wistfully watched Sakura's not insignificant assets as she walked away.

Sasuke curled his lip in distaste. "She's a fangirl from a civilian family and she gets on my nerves. Girl like that doesn't like you. She likes the Hokage's only son and his pretty blue eyes. I can't believe she made chuunin."

"Leave her alone. She was just a fan girl, but she's a real shinobi now, and she's kind of hot, and she likes me. She _really_ likes me." Naruto threw an arm around Sasuke's shoulders. "Since you busted up my date, dinner is on you."

"Fine, but we're both making jounin this year and distractions like girls will only get in the way of that. We have to focus." Unaware of the maniacal glint in his eyes when he said the word jounin, Sasuke continued, "Itachi has been threatening to pull me back into the police force if I'm not a jounin by the end of the year."

"Girls aren't distracting. They're soft and they smell nice and they relieve stress. Besides, isn't it your father's call whether you stay a ninja? Why would Itachi get to decide? Itachi's crazy. Itachi tied you to the Hokage monument in your skivvies when you didn't make chuunin first try."

"My father isn't getting any younger. He's been delegating things to Itachi. He delegated me to Itachi."

"Okay that's scary. Jounin this year then. We need to work on your stealth skills first. Sakura spotted you and she sucks at detection."

* * *

In the shadows, another dark-eyed, dark-haired boy stalked his prey. He listened in as the boys discussed training plans and weaknesses. Neither boy noticed his pursuit, and when they parted company at the gates of the Uchiha compound, Itachi continued following his little brother. Unlike other times, Itachi didn't attack his brother; he slipped from the shadows and approached him.

"You're making a mistake," Itachi said. "You should distance yourself from Namikaze. Your emotions are compromised."

"Naruto and I have been friends since before we could walk properly. Father approves of the association. Having a friend doesn't make me emotionally compromised." Sasuke glared at his unpredictable brother, unsure where this was going. He had never said a word against Naruto before.

"We have to know ourselves Sasuke, and you do not yet see how compromised you are. Distance would be safer."

* * *

Minato sat back and watched Kushina pace. He could tell from her stride that she wanted to hit something. But he wasn't yet sure whether he would be her target. Her long red hair whipped behind her, a fiery flag punctuating her ire. "Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"Our son has a reputation," Kushina said. "He's been with three different girls since he returned to the village, three. And Jiraiya already left again so I can't kill him for turning my son into a horn dog."

Minato's eyebrows shot up. Three? Defending Jiraiya probably wouldn't be healthy, but Minato couldn't help himself. "Naruto is a teenager, sixteen. There is likely a hormonal component to his behavior."

"Hormones? Jiraiya corrupted my baby! Kakashi's influence can't have helped either. Horn dogs and perverts, you signed my child over to horn dogs and perverts. Maybe I should just be glad he isn't peeping at women in the hot springs? I blame you." Kushina waved her finger at her husband, her glare daring him to smile.

"I'll talk to him if you want?" Minato offered. "Make sure he's being safe, but he's an adult, has been since he received his hitai-ate, and if he wants to explore his options, neither of us have any right to stop him."

"I'll talk to him," Kushina declared. "I will embarrass him so badly that he'll be celibate for a year at least."

Minato watched her go out the window and sighed. Contemplating the situation for a moment, he activated the hiraishin in Naruto's pocket, appearing next to his son in an instant. Because the kunai hadn't been thrown, he appeared practically on top of him and they almost fell to the ground. "Whoa, hey Dad. Is there an emergency?"

"Yeah, your mother is coming for you, to discuss your sex life. You might want to make yourself scarce until she's had a chance to calm down. Three girls? You've been back five weeks."

Naruto's eyes went wide and color crept up his neck, across his face, and to the roots of his hair. "Mom knows about that? They were only dates and some making out. I swear! Sasuke's been sabotaging me for fun every time I get to second base."

"I believe you, but your mother isn't going to listen right now. Try hiding out in training ground nine. There's good camping there. Give it a couple of days. She'll have taken a pound of flesh from Kakashi by then and be more likely to listen to you." Minato grinned at his scarlet-faced son. "I would run."

* * *

His second day camping Naruto was found, but not by his mother. Sasuke arrived to provide sparring practice and companionship and couple of orders of ramen. "You are my best friend," Naruto said between slurps of noodles. "I'm thinking about venturing out tomorrow, see if my mom has calmed down. She can't handle that I'm not ten anymore. Dating girls was bound to happen."

Sasuke grunted. "Maybe she's mad because you pick such vapid specimens? Two civilians and Pinkie?"

"Vanessa has pretty eyes. Lee was incredibly friendly. And Sakura is pretty and a chuunin! Three excellent dating options, if I do say so myself." Naruto leaned back and patted his full stomach. "Is your father still arranging your eventual marriage?"

"If I haven't found someone he approves of by my twentieth birthday he will. We have to perpetuate the bloodlines." Sasuke frowned. "Not that he's forced Itachi to marry yet. Itachi gets to do whatever he wants because he's such a perfect genius."

"Perfect except he's insane," Naruto added.

"He is that." Sasuke rose and nodded toward the clearing where they'd been sparing. "Ready to go again?"

"I suppose. Just taijutsu, no frills or techniques, yes? I don't want to accidently tip my mom off on my location yet."

"It's your funeral." Sasuke joined his friend in the clearing and bowed. "I own you at plain taijutsu."

"We'll see." The two boys circled one another. Naruto waited patiently for Sasuke to make the first move. His mother's style involved constant aggression with defense only as an afterthought. His father's style built from defense, always exploiting the enemy's openings. Jiraiya on the other hand might go either way at any time. His fighting style was nothing short of unpredictable, and Jiraiya's was his favorite. He had made it a point to alternate between his mother's and father's style until this point, but he was ready to show Sasuke something new.

Sasuke smirked and attacked, assuming he was facing Minato's style from Naruto's opening stance. But the blond waited for the attack and launched into an attack of his own. The boys traded punches and kicks, bouncing around the clearing, even briefly ascending to the trees. Naruto ended the spar with Sasuke pinned, hand poised for the kill strike over his throat. "Yield?"

"Yield," Sasuke grunted. "That style suits you, but you won't catch me off guard twice."

Naruto enjoyed his initial victory, but Sasuke wasn't caught off guard again. Of the following five spars, Naruto only won only twice. The two boys fought the final spar to a panting exhausted draw. They lay side by side in the grass, a bit bruised and battered, but smiling.

What came next so shocked Naruto that he didn't dodge, fight, or breathe. Sasuke rolled over and kissed him, a firm warm pressure on his lips that ended with a quiet Sasuke propped above him, searching his face for a response.

"Why?" Naruto's mouth remained open in a shocked moue.

Suddenly embarrassed, Sasuke looked away from that surprised face. Itachi's words repeated in the back of his mind, mocking him about emotional compromise and mistakes. "Forget it," Sasuke said, rolling away. "Badly conceived joke."

"A joke? You'd think you were the one training with Jiraiya with new jokes like that. It caught me off guard. That could actually be a taijutsu move. Shock the enemy with a kiss and bam, knock them out. It's kind of brilliant." Naruto sat up and managed a smile, but there was discomfort in his eyes. "Thanks for helping keep me distracted, but I think it's time to face my mom."

"Can we just forget that happened?" Sasuke asked quietly. "I don't know why I did that."

"Yeah," Naruto said. "Yeah, of course."

Sasuke wasn't surprised when his brother melted from the shadows after Naruto had run away. His arms crossed over his chest, Itachi leaned against a tree. "He doesn't see you the way you have begun to see him. That might change or it might not. Can you handle the situation?"

"I'm a shinobi, mastering my emotions is part of the job. I'll be fine." Sasuke stood and brushed himself off. He wouldn't let himself touch his lips that had briefly met Naruto's. Arranging his face into a calm mask, he met his brother's gaze.

"Father wouldn't approve. He considers homosexuality a mark of weakness. You need to associate with a marriageable girl. He suspects your leaning, has for some time. He can't find out Sasuke. I can't protect you if he does." Itachi crossed the distance between them and grasped his brother's shoulders. "Father won't live forever, little brother. When I'm head of the clan, and I will be, it won't matter."

"Naruto looked at me like I wasn't me anymore. What does it matter anyway?" Sasuke asked.

"You're sixteen. Even if Naruto never sees you as anything but his friend, you'll find someone else, trust me." Itachi wrapped an arm around Sasuke's shoulders. "Now in the meantime, I've arrange a date for you with a very pretty girl to set our father's mind at ease. Her name is Mei and she is part of the clan. I want you to be showy with her. Make sure you're seen and you're physical. And you have to stop breaking up Naruto's dates. After today, he won't see it as a prank between friends. He'll recognize the stalker behavior."

"I'm not a stalker," Sasuke hissed.

"Yes you are, but it's okay because I taught you and it's a great way to hone your skills. Your stealth has always been a weakness. Any worse and the civilians would be spotting you."

* * *

Moving through their private training grounds, Naruto approached his mother. She sat lotus style under a droopy eucalyptus tree, obviously meditating. She didn't look angry. He took position in front of her, and waited to be acknowledged. When she opened her eyes, Naruto flinched, but not from the anger she directed at him. She looked sad and disappointed. Anger would have hurt less. "Hey kid, what's this I hear about you sleeping around with a different girl every week? We raised you to respect women."

"They were just some dates with some girls and we didn't go all the way. I promise. I'm allowed to date."

"You're telling me that the rumors were exaggerated?" Kushina smiled. "Good, sleeping your way through the village didn't sound like my boy."

"I know it's partly because of Dad, but I'm pretty popular with the girls it seems, and I like them. I don't want to tell them no." Naruto paused, and looked away. "A boy likes me too. He kissed me and I didn't know what to do."

Kushina's eyebrows rose and she laughed softly. "The curse of popularity. Do I know this boy? You know your father and I won't care if you like a boy. I want grandchildren, but you have to follow your heart."

"No, definitely no. I mean I like him but not like I like Sakura and Vanessa and Lee. He's a friend. You know?" Naruto sighed and dropped his head into his hands. "I don't want to lose a friend, but I don't want to confuse things. What if he hates me because I don't return his feelings?"

"Be honest, be clear, and I'm sure it will work out," Kushina encouraged. "If it doesn't work out, he wasn't a very good friend anyway."

* * *

She fit in his arms, so perfectly that Minato couldn't ever sleep right when Kushina was gone. Tonight she was curled in his arms where she belonged.

"Uchiha Sasuke is in love with our son."

Minato expected to hear about Kushina's talk with Naruto, but he hadn't expected that. "Love, as in love?"

"Naruto didn't say it was Sasuke, but I know it was him. If Fugaku finds out," Kushina continued, "he won't be reasonable. The man is never reasonable."

"Damn, I wanted grandkids," Minato groaned. "And you know I won't let anyone hurt Sasuke."

"We may yet get grandkids. Naruto seems more interested in the girls throwing themselves at him for now." Kushina kissed her husband's hand and arm and neck. She claimed his lips, slipping over to straddle him. "Do you love me?"

Minato pulled her close, whispering huskily, "With everything I have."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

The unrequited love bit that cropped up in this chapter was not planned. It just happened. It changes where things were going to go. But not so dramatically that it should derail me too awful much. It's actually better than the road in the outline, I think. The original outline bullet called for the boys to be rivals over a "girl."

The next chapter has me a bit stalled. If that doesn't resolve, there won't be a chapter next week.

Peace!


	14. Burning Man

**Chapter 11 - Burning Man**

If Naruto had been certain he had lost a friend a month earlier, now he knew he hadn't. The day after their disastrously awkward kiss, Sasuke arrived at his bedroom window with a newly procured A-Rank. He launched into their plan to make jounin, discussing the balance they should strike between training and the highest rank missions they could wheedle out of the mission desk.

Following Sasuke's lead as he had for so much of his life, Naruto pretended the kiss never happened.

They wove in and out of missions and training, an exhausting dance meant to garner enough attention that the council would nominate them for promotion and the Hokage would have to approve it. After their last mission, a particularly prickly enterprise guarding a diplomat, Naruto rather wanted a short vacation. Sprinting along beside Sasuke with the village walls just visible on the horizon, thoughts of home coaxed a smile from him.

Their welcome at the gate was warm, and Naruto spent some time chatting to the gate chuunin while Sasuke stewed impatiently. "Go on and submit our report without me already," Naruto groused after Sasuke's fifth sigh.

"Tomorrow regular time at the regular training ground?" Sasuke asked.

"Tomorrow," Naruto agreed.

Once on his own, Naruto took to the rooftops. He raced forward lazily, soaking in the sounds, sights, and smells of home. Always noisy, the civilians buzzed in the market place, buying and selling and gossiping. The unmistakable scent of ramen found him and Naruto turned toward his favorite restaurant. A steaming bowl of ramen would be the perfect welcome home.

Between himself and ramen, Naruto spotted his pink-haired friend who was a girl who might almost be his girlfriend. Since his mother's intervention and his awkward moment with Sasuke, Naruto had reevaluated his approach to dating and had discontinued all extracurricular activities except the one he felt most serious about. "Sakura!" he greeted warmly. "I just got home. Did you miss me?"

If she was startled by the blond missile that landed in front of her, Sakura didn't show it outwardly. "I ran into Sasuke at the mission desk and figured you were home too. How goes plan jounin-or-bust?"

Naruto stepped closer, his smile settling into more subdued smirk. "We're answering questions with questions? I guess you didn't miss me."

"Did I miss you? Of course I missed you! But more than that, I'm pissed at you! You are so oblivious sometimes. You know you aren't the only one trying to get noticed. You aren't the only one who wants to be a jounin sometime this decade. Do you know how hard it is to get an A-rank out of the mission desk when you're a civilian-born chuunin and your village isn't at war with anyone? Maybe you and Sasuke could share the wealth a little and then I wouldn't have to miss you as we'd be on a mission together!" Sakura crossed her arms over her chest and waited while Naruto absorbed her tirade.

"Eh, sure, medics are always useful to have around. Next A-rank, you're in," Naruto agreed casually. He captured one of Sakura's hands and pulled her minutely closer so that they were entwined, her head just at his chin, her warm breath on his neck. Naruto sighed, "Want to go to training ground six to _welcome me home_?"

Sakura rolled her eyes at Naruto's thinly veiled euphemism for making out. "I thought we were making progress with your pick up lines. First you buy me dinner, NOT ramen, and then we can _welcome you home_."

"Aw, not ramen?" Naruto whispered in her ear, "What if I said, please?"

She pushed at him half-heartedly and sighed, reveling in the intimacy of the moment. "It is your first night back. God, I'm such a push over." With a twist, Sakura was leading Naruto by the hand out of their secluded alcove and toward his favorite ramen stand.

* * *

Sasuke went through the motions, turning in his mission report, responding to the questions of his comrades. He walked and talked and did missions like a real person, but it was just a hollow pantomime. Pretending to be Naruto's friend was the worst part, the part that was killing him. His friend accepted his pantomime as reality and pretended things hadn't changed. Most of the time Sasuke could believe things were the same, but Naruto didn't talk about his dates or his girlfriends. He didn't share his life with Sasuke anymore. They had their mission to become jounin and everything else that had made up their friendship had sheared away.

He hated the time they spent together anymore, but he didn't know how to fix it, and he couldn't just give Naruto up completely.

Rather than stroll through the front door of his family home, Sasuke leapt silently to his window. He couldn't face his father and mother tonight. He was too tired to wear his mask for them. Instead of blessed isolation, Sasuke found his stone-faced brother waiting in his room. Itachi raised a single hand at his entrance.

"I don't want to talk," Sasuke snarled. At least he didn't need to pretend anything to his brother, Sasuke thought grimly. Itachi knew all his deepest shames and secrets. "I'm exhausted. Please just let me rest."

"I didn't know you were a masochist little brother. Naruto spends his days training and working with you and most nights with his tongue down Sakura-chan's throat. You must enjoy the pain of it to keep torturing yourself." Itachi cocked his head to the side just a fraction. "When you pick the scab of a wound again and again, it doesn't heal and it will eventually fester."

"Aren't you eloquent? Get out." Sasuke gestured to the window even as he began stripping away his dirty clothes.

"As you wish. I'll just file the paperwork to remove you to the police force tomorrow." Itachi was out the window before Sasuke could respond to his threat.

Another day, Sasuke would have given chase and eventually fought Itachi, fought until his brother took back his threat and agreed to allow his ninja career to continue. Today Sasuke let him go, he shoved his dirty clothes into the hamper and slipped between the sheets of his bed. Like he was five again and scared of the monster in his closet he pulled the top sheet over his head.

* * *

Their training started a two hour run from the village walls. Sasuke suggested that they train outside the village to tinker at some of their more destructive jutsu. You couldn't bat around resengans in a training ground without potentially damaging something important, so Naruto agreed easily.

From their first spar, Sasuke wasn't fighting like himself. He had always fought in a meticulous manner, his form refined, his strikes precision. Today he fought like a man on fire, he fought like his life depended on the outcome. Naruto rolled with it, defending himself. He must have had another fight with his father, Naruto reasoned. How better to work out frustration than with one's fists?

Without warning, Sasuke switched from taijutsu to ninjutsu, shooting a series of fire balls at his friend. Using his hard earned speed Naruto dodged and weaved, sending currents of wind to buffet but not cut. He never considered breaking off the fight. Sasuke needed to get it out. He'd done the same for Naruto more than once.

High level training could be dangerous if the individuals fighting didn't understand the rules. Naruto and Sasuke had been fighting these battles their whole lives. A discussion of the rules hadn't been necessary in years. So when Sasuke flew at him with a powered Chidori, Naruto didn't panic. He summoned a Rasengan to counter and prepared for impact. In the moment before their crackling jutsu collided, Naruto felt a flicker of doubt. If one of their jutsu significantly overpowered the other, it wouldn't be a broken bone or a laceration to pay, these jutsu could kill. While Sasuke had always been the smarter of them, the delicate hand at jutsu, and the one who mastered skills first, Naruto had always been the stronger in chakra and determination. His rasengan could accidentally cut Sasuke in half.

In the moment before their jutsu collided, Naruto pulled back, while Sasuke plowed forward.

Naruto didn't scream when Sasuke's jutsu carved a hole in his chest. There was no air in his chest to scream with. He couldn't lift his hand. He couldn't draw a breath. Naruto met Sasuke's wide horrified eyes and the world disintegrated into blackness.

Sasuke knew he'd gone too far when he first summoned the chidori. He knew how dangerous it was to wield such jutsu at an ally. He also knew Naruto's rasengan should be able to counter its power.

The smell hit him first, not the sight of the hole, or the warm slick blood on his fingers. It smelled like the barbeque pit back home. Naruto's eyes met his, bright blue and scared. Those eyes went dull and like a marionette without strings, he fell.

A moment ago he had been so frustrated and hurt and angry. The source of that pain lay dying at his feet and Sasuke just wished he could take it back. He held his hands over the sluggishly bleeding hole and what was left of his friend's heart. "You can't die," Sasuke whispered. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

A pair of pale hands pushed him away. "Let me help him. He doesn't have much time."

The girl trying to help Naruto was nondescript, brown eyes, brown hair and a healer's seal over half her face. Sasuke had never seen a healing seal placed, but he could have sung with joy at her arrival. "Please save him."

The girl held one hand to her seal which began to glow with a blue light. Using her index finger as a brush she traced a blue weave over Naruto's damaged chest. The burned out cavity vanished in the glow and the girl rocked back on her heels. She was whispering something over and over, staring at his motionless friend. "Come on breathe; come on breathe; come on breathe."

She was too late. Sasuke stared at his blood covered right hand. I killed him. "No!" Sasuke pushed the healer aside and hammered at Naruto's chest. "You don't get to die like this. Breathe!"

Quite suddenly, with an eye watering cough, Naruto obliged him.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

It's short but this is where it needs to stop. I do know that Kakashi is the originator of the chidori and wasn't Sasuke's sensei in this AU. I could write a chapter to get him the jutsu, but I ask that you just accept this leap that he knows it. :)

Hope the chapter doesn't disappoint. Writing romantic love of any kind is not my forte. This part of the story hinges on romantic frustration and jealousy and the explosions that often follow emotional repression/avoidance.


	15. Setting the Hook

**Chapter 12 - Setting the Hook**

Minato had barely settled behind his desk for the morning when the petitions and paperwork started. He navigated the flow of bureaucracy and diplomacy with speed and skill his years in the position had taught him.

Uchiha Itachi's arrival at his door, presented the first real challenge of the morning.

"Good morning, Hokage-sama." Itachi stood at parade rest, waiting for Namikaze to give him leave to speak. "You may know that my father has given responsibility for my brother over to me. I am considering petitioning to have Sasuke transferred to the police force. Would that petition be granted if made?"

"Far be it for me to interfere in Uchiha clan affairs, but why are you considering this? Sasuke is an excellent ninja; he loves it. Why disrupt his career at this stage? I have a petition here from the council to promote your brother to jounin." Minato shrugged at the inscrutable Uchiha. "Does Sasuke want out?"

"Sasuke will be pleased with the promotion. During peace time, it is customary to grant a new jounin a short leave to celebrate. My brother could use a break, whether he will admit it or not. A promotion and a break, might be more productive than starting over in the police force." Itachi crossed his arms over his chest. "Will Sasuke be granted a leave?"

"I can make that happen," Minato agreed. He didn't like the feeling that there were a dozen subplots to this request that he wasn't privy to, but Itachi had only ever been protective of his younger brother. Besides, Minato had some good suspicions on what this was about. "Is there anything else I should know?"

"Not at all Hokage-sama. When will Sasuke be notified of his promotion?" Itachi asked.

"I planned to tell both of them this evening. Naruto and Sasuke are training today. The council nominated them both," Minato replied, his face brightening into a proud smile. "I suspect Naruto will want to continue sage training after he receives his promotion. He'll require another year out of the village. Do you think that might be enough of a break to help Sasuke?"

This time Itachi shrugged. "I've never been heartbroken, Hokage-sama. Let's hope so."

* * *

Sasuke braced Naruto as he coughed and gagged, getting his breath back. Now that everyone was breathing again, he couldn't help noticing the large group watching them. The healer who sealed Naruto's injury remained close, but there were other healers. Men and women, young and old, two dozen of them stood silently in a loose circle, watching Naruto cough and breathe.

He had never been stellar at stealth or detection, but these people weren't here ten minutes or even five minutes ago. Sasuke was a high level chuunin and an Uchiha, but he felt chilled by these healer's presence. "Hey Naruto, can you stand? We need to get back to the village."

Breathing more steadily, Naruto reached a hand to his newly healed chest. He shoved Sasuke back and rose. "I filed a no seal request, Sasuke, NO SEAL not even in the face of death. How dare you let them?"

Naruto turned on Sumire, the healer who had been stalking him his whole life it seemed. "You know I didn't want a seal, so take it back. You can take them back. You took that ANBU's seal back."

"He doesn't mean that," Sasuke interjected. "He's in shock."

"You shut up," Naruto snapped. "You shoved a damn chidori through my chest. Then you let them put a seal on me so I have to die twice, thanks buddy, appreciate it."

Sasuke knew about Naruto's no seal request, and Kushina-sensei's feelings about sealed healers. He had always thought Naruto filed the paperwork more to appease his mother than anything else. When push came to shove, Naruto would choose life. Everyone chose life. "Naruto, you're alive. I don't regret that. I do regret the chidori in your chest. It was an accident. Please don't make me your murderer. Please."

Naruto looked past Sasuke, finally noticing the large group of healers surrounding them. "How are you always here when these things happen? It takes two minutes for the brain to die when the heart stops beating. You were here and placing a seal in less than two minutes. I'd be hard pressed to pull that off with the hiraishin. Why me? What do you want from me?"

"I'm still waiting for my thank you for saving your life, twice now," Sumire said. "Most people say thank you."

"Not bloody likely," Naruto pulled out a kunai and sliced his arm from the elbow to wrist, opening the flesh to the bone. Blood welled and flowed, but only for a short moment. The seal on his chest glowed and spread, knitting the flesh on his arm together seamlessly. "That isn't how seals work," Naruto whispered. "They don't heal new wounds."

"You're welcome anyway, Uzumaki Naruto." The other healers began pulling back, vanishing into the surrounding woods. "Please live. We aren't the villains your clan paints us as. We wouldn't dream of hurting you or anyone. We've never done anything but help."

Sumire didn't linger and soon the boys were alone, Naruto staring listlessly at the seal now decorating his forearm. Sasuke took him by the shoulders and forced Naruto to look at him. "You hurt yourself again and I'll..."

"Kill me?" Naruto laughed hysterically. He laughed until he was crying. "My mother made a vow to her clan that she would never take a seal. She vowed to keep seals off of all Uzumaki. She vowed to kill anyone violating that law. When my mom finds out what I've done, she'll have to kill me or break her vow to her home, her father, and her clan."

"Kushina-sensei won't hurt you," Sasuke said uncertainly.

"You wouldn't think so. Yesterday, I would never have thought you'd have killed me either." Naruto shrugged off Sasuke's hold and stalked around the clearing. "I don't want to die, Sasuke. But Uzumaki are dangerous when sealed. I don't know the whole story. Dad wouldn't let me go to Whirlpool and take the adult vows to get the truth. Mom seems grimly certain that bad things will start happening soon. So, we need to end this before they start."

"We aren't ending anything. We should go to the Hokage," Sasuke asserted firmly. The Namikaze family didn't often fight, but when they did the entire village gossiped about it. The filing of Naruto's no seal paperwork had caused a slow burning scandal. Namikaze Minato didn't buy the crap about seals his wife preached, and he might be able to talk sense to his son. "Come on." Sasuke gestured pleadingly.

"What part of I'm dangerous don't you understand? I should be moving away from Konoha, not toward it." Naruto looked as though he might start sprinting due north, so Sasuke blocked him again, latching onto his shoulders. With the speed Naruto could manage, Sasuke would never catch him if he fled.

"You don't know either. You just said that you never went to Whirlpool to find out what the fuss was about. All you know is some crap your grandfather told you when you were what four? Be smart. Stop panicking. You're alive and nothing bad is happening. We're ninja of the Leaf. We should go to our Hokage."

"I don't want to die," Naruto gasped, a tear streaking down one scarred cheek.

"Good thing you're alive then."

Naruto nodded slowly. "We'll go to the Hokage, but you have to promise. You started this with your chidori, if it comes down to it, you won't let me hurt anyone. You owe me, so swear it."

"I won't let you hurt anyone, I swear," Sasuke agreed.

* * *

It wasn't often Minato was surprised. Hearing his son explain that his best friend and comrade had accidentally mortally wounded him and then authorized a sealed healer to repair the damage left him staggered. He examined the seal on his son's chest and arm, visibly flinching at the second. An accident was one thing, this second wound was self inflicted. "Your mother can never know. This is officially an S-rank secret. It never leaves this room."

"Mom is the only one of us who knows what this really means. We have to tell her," Naruto argued. "With the seal active, she'll know how to, you know."

"To kill you?" Minato snapped. "I don't think so."

"But if I'm dangerous," Naruto continued.

"You aren't dangerous," Sasuke interjected.

Minato turned a hard stare on him. "Step outside for a moment, Uchiha."

Once they were alone, Minato pulled his son into an embrace. "That fairytale your grandfather told you, he said it was a wandering healer that open this dangerous door. You have a seal. You're still yourself. If you get called to wander, we'll deal with that. I'll tell your mother about the seal, and we'll protect Konoha. Agreed?"

"The sealed healers don't behave normally about me. They saved me from that Iwa ANBU, and they shouldn't have been able to get to me in time to save me today. There were more than twenty of them there, chomping at the bit to place a seal on me." Naruto shivered involuntarily.

"We have a plan Naruto. You don't have to die to protect Konoha. Let me handle the protecting. You just need to live," Minato commanded.

Sumire, Sasuke, his dad, everyone wanted him to live. "I won't tell mom unless I think I'm being called to wander. Then I'm telling her first."

* * *

Sasuke waited quietly outside the door while Minato hopefully talked Naruto down to a calmer place where he didn't want to kill himself or run away. When the door finally opened, Naruto did not speak to him or even acknowledge his presence. Sasuke watched him go, worried that he was alone. Didn't his father understand that Naruto was hovering dangerously close to suicidal. Someone needed to watch him, protect him from himself until he calmed down and realized having a seal wasn't the end of the world.

"Uchiha, get in here," Minato ordered.

"Sir, should Naruto be alone right now. He tried to kill himself, sir." Sasuke glanced worriedly at the closed door. "I should be with him."

"You shouldn't be anywhere near him, Uchiha. You're poisonous. You did this. Maybe you didn't mean it, but you killed my son today. What makes you think I'm not going to execute you for it?" Minato moved so quickly, Sasuke could barely follow it. A kunai pressed into his throat, and the yellow flash really only needed to twitch to end him. "Naruto doesn't want you dead, and that is the only reason you aren't."

Minato stepped back, twirling his kunai. "You're getting promoted today, Sasuke, and then I'm assigning you indefinitely to our outpost in Suna."

"Promoted and an indefinite outpost assignment, sounds like exile," Sasuke said. "Not that I don't deserve punishment, but why so generous with the promotion? I don't deserve that."

"The promotion had already gone through, Uchiha, or it wouldn't be happening. As for the exile, you're right about it being punishment, but it's also for your protection. It may be a while before I can shake the urge to execute you." Minato circled around and collapsed into the chair behind his desk. "You'll have a week's vacation to get your affairs in order. And I do recommend you avoid me during that week as much as possible. You're dismissed."

Sasuke turned to go, determined to check on Naruto. "Oh Uchiha, there's an ANBU watching over Naruto until I can get out of here and take over. He has orders to kill you if you come within a hundred feet of my son. Am I understood?"

**Author's Note:**

So, I decided to post again because cliffhangers are evil.

Why do I enjoy torturing Sasuke so much? :)

Everyone with strong shipping opinions, the thrust of this fic will not be romance. Minato/Kushina and Rin/Obito are firmly decided. Everything else is going to go as the story dictates. I don't fight the characters or the story when they decide the outline is wrong. The outline had Naruto and Sasuke getting into an argument over Sakura. Sakura in the outline was flighty and cheated on Naruto during one of his training expeditions. The characters didn't fit that mold when I got to that part of the fic so things changed. We'll see where the story steers me.


	16. New Eyes

**Chapter 13 - New Eyes**

A summoning to the Hokage's office could mean a few things, many of them good, some of them annoying, and a few decidedly bad. Obito stepped through the door to his sensei's office, prepared for any of the three. Minato didn't greet him with a smile or a wave. He activated the ingrained privacy seals in the room systematically.

"Thanks for coming so promptly, Obito." Minato gestured to a chair and slumped into his own.

"Funny thing about being my former sensei and my Hokage, you ask me to stop by and I won't drag my feet. Besides, Rin has been working on my punctuality." Obito's easy smile faded under Minato continuing scowl.

"I've got a situation that I think you can help with. There was a training accident yesterday. Naruto was wounded seriously." Minato paused as though the last statement had choked him. "He's fine now because he has a seal. We all know what my wife feels about seals. Your clan's response to your seal makes you uniquely qualified to understand what he's going through.

"I need you to babysit him. Help him clear his head and get past this. Kushina is out of the village, but I need to have Naruto in a good state of mind before she gets back. He isn't hearing me."

Obito had reflexively clenched his sealed right hand. "There are medically trained counselors. I'm not qualified to help."

"I'm trusting you with this secret, Obito. No one else can know, not a counselor, not your girlfriend, not even Kakashi, most especially not my wife. I need you to try to help him deal with this."

"Is that an order?" Obito asked.

"Does it need to be?"

"No." With a sigh, Obito leaned forward. "Is it true that the Uzumaki clan kill their own that take seals?"

Minato nodded once. "I told you-you've been where he is right now."

Fatally wounded, sealed, and then nearly executed by family, Obito wouldn't wish that scenario on his worst enemy, much less his sensei's son. "I'll try."

* * *

A ninja sporting a simple stylized white rabbit mask crouched in a tree near the Hokage residence. He neither announced his presence nor was he hiding. Raising one hand in greeting, Obito joined him on his high, sturdy tree branch. "Hokage-sama sent me to take over for you. Is Naruto inside?"

The ANBU jerked his head toward a cluster of nearby trees. "He has been up there all morning, mostly writing in a scroll."

Obito couldn't help feeling impressed that the ANBU didn't ask him what had happened that the Hokage's son was under surveillance.

"You may need your eyes to see him properly. There are some privacy jutsu up, nothing that can't be seen through with the right eyes." Rabbit turned so that a pair of sharingan eyes could be seen behind his mask.

"Thanks." Obito didn't bother trying to figure which member of the clan currently wore the Rabbit mask. He hadn't been a real Uchiha in so long that he no longer followed the comings and goings of the rest of them. Obito activated his sharingan and used his increased perception of the world to cross into Naruto's private circle.

Naruto didn't glance up from what he was writing. "Ah, a new babysitter. You can babysit over there." He jerked his head toward the tree the ANBU had perched in.

Obito tried to read over Naruto's shoulder. "What are you writing?"

"How old are you?" Naruto rolled up the scroll and shoved it in his pocket. "And it's a letter to my mother."

"It doesn't contain any S-rank secrets, does it? It's treason to write a S-rank secret down, much less send it to someone." Obito shrugged. "I guess as the Hokage's son, the rules don't apply to you. Never even took a chuunin exam and now he's a jounin."

"If you're trying to provoke a fight, you can forget it. The last time I tried to let someone spar out their bad mood, it didn't end well for me, but judging from your comment about secrets, you already knew that. So, did he send you here to hold my hand and explain how having a seal isn't so bad for a shinobi?"

"Your dad's worried about you." Obito fidgeted uncomfortably. "It helped me to talk about my seal, about what I was feeling."

"Oh God," Naruto groaned. "You were right to provoke me. Let's spar. Anything to stop the talking."

Obito considered pushing Naruto to talk like Minato-sensei wanted, but he didn't know what to say anyway. Naruto would figure out how to be okay with his seal in his own way, everyone did. Obito launched himself into the nearest clearing. "Rules?"

"Don't die."

Despite his fatalistic declaration, Naruto didn't attack Obito aggressively. He settled into a defensive stance and waited for an attack. Obito obliged with a combination of kicks and punches, delivered at less than half power. They traded taijutsu blows, working up a sweat but not really challenging themselves. "Your heart isn't in this," Obito barked. "I've gotten a better fight out of an angry Uchiha genin."

Naruto dropped his defense and plopped down in the grass. "You're right."

"I've been where you are, you know. My clan voted to execute me after my seal. Your dad saved my life." Obito sat down next to Naruto. "It was a struggle to keep my head straight, that choosing life wasn't wrong. If this seal played up tomorrow and I had to give up my life, at least I got an extra ten years. I got to become a jounin and even fall in love."

"If I were an Uchiha, you'd be right, but I'm an Uzumaki. It's different for us." Naruto whispered the next part so quietly, Obito almost couldn't hear. "You won't hurt anyone if your seal plays up."

"Look, I'm not an Uzumaki, but I know all the signs that can herald a seal awakening. I recite them every night before bed to remind myself that I'm okay." Obito held up a hand and ticked the signs off systematically. "Seeing strange colors. Hearing music. Burning in the seal. A numb sensation in the seal. Have you experienced any of those?"

"No." Naruto rubbed a hand over his chest. He actually smiled. "We never really talked about the signs of a seal awakening. I promised not to take one and that was all I needed to know. I didn't sleep last night from worrying about it. But I haven't experienced any of those things."

"Then you're okay." Obito grinned. Unless he missed his guess, Naruto was finally contemplating living with a seal. "It doesn't happen overnight. There are always signs."

"I need to see Sasuke. We need to clear the air. He's my best friend; I'm going to need him, if I'm going to live with this. I know you're babysitting me, but would you mind babysitting from a bit of a distance for a while?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"Not today, your Hokage has you on restriction to the premises, but I'm sure Sasuke will stop by. What kind of friend shoves a chidori through your chest and then doesn't visit?"

* * *

Overnight, the world changed.

Naruto went to sleep, filled with anxiety, certain that his life was over. An invisible clock was ticking through the thread of his seal, marking the moments to his demise. He slept restlessly, his dreams fevered and relentless. When he woke, his dreams were forgotten, and his anxiety was gone. He sat up in bed and smiled. He felt light and free. He had never felt so well in his life. Propped in a chair beside his bed, his father slept.

His father was worried he would hurt himself, Naruto supposed. It seemed ridiculous now. Everything was exactly in balance; everything had happened as it was meant to. Now he just had to stay alive long enough to find the door. Naruto slipped into the bathroom and showered quickly. Wrapped only in a towel, he surveyed himself and his passenger. His seal glowed gently, talons of energy gripping his heart, rooted in the design. A beast molded of energy wrapped around his body, it's tails curling around his limbs, it's eyes glowing behind his eyes.

Naruto dressed, humming under his breath, humming with the song of his passenger. His father was awake when he returned to his bedroom. Naruto made himself focus on this interaction. If this man suspected his change, there could be problems. He might hinder his search for the door. "Good morning, Dad."

"You seem better," Minato said. He ran a hand over his son's face and ruffled his hair, oblivious to the being he disrupted with the gesture. "How do you feel?"

"Better," Naruto agreed. "I don't think I can face Mom though, not yet. When is she due back in the village?"

"A couple of days yet. It won't be easy keeping this secret for either of us, but it would torment her, knowing you had a seal. I don't think she could, that she would..." Minato couldn't meet Naruto's eyes.

"You don't think she'd kill me, but you really aren't sure." Naruto shoved his hands in his pockets. "I'm not sure either, thus the avoidance plan. Do you think I might be able to land a mission out of village for a few weeks, months, or even years?"

"I'd rather keep an eye on you for a few days, but an easy C-rank if you take back up would be okay I guess." Minato felt himself relaxing minutely as he realized how calm Naruto had become. "I think Kakashi is in village. Are you up for a reunion with your old sensei?"

"Sending Kakashi-sensei with me on a C-rank isn't backup, it's another babysitter," Naruto complained, "but I'll deal with it, because otherwise you aren't going to let me go. We should have some breakfast. Eggs?"

"Allow me," Minato said. "Breakfast will be up in fifteen."

His passenger growled and flexed, anxious to get moving. Naruto hummed a bit, trying to calm him. They couldn't afford to worry this man. He could kill them or he could tell the Uzumaki about them. Just thinking Uzumaki caused the passenger to snap viciously. Naruto hummed on soothingly. If they played it cool and landed the right mission, it would be weeks before anyone came looking. They would have enough time to find the door before the Uzumaki could discover them and ruin it.

Naruto ate his eggs, chatted with his father, and hummed under his breath trying to maintain balance, to keep his passenger calm. The passenger wanted nothing but to search and this stalling made it anxious. "Let's go find my C-rank."

"I'll find an appropriate mission. You find Kakashi and meet me at the tower. Naruto, are you sure you're okay?" Minato asked.

"For a person who took a chidori to the chest two days ago, I feel really good," Naruto quipped. "I'm not going to do anything crazy, Dad." He rubbed his arm with the secondary seal. "It wasn't a sane moment when I did that." His passenger purred agreement with that sentiment.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

The chapters in this section are on the staccato side. They will continue to be until the story concludes. It won't drag out for too many more chapters.

There is a decision to make about Kushina before the next chapter can really get going. I may put this fic aside for a while until I decide how to take this to the end. As always thanks for the comments, criticisms, and speculations.

Peace!


	17. I Walk to War

**Chapter 14 - I Walk to War**

**July 1, 1785 - The Land of Wave**

_A red door inlaid with shiny brass gears dominated a cluttered workroom. A whirling dervish amongst the debris, a man with spiky red hair and bright blue eyes expertly adjusted the gears, fine tuning the device. Circling his creation, Katasuya carved another layer to the seals encircling the doorframe. _

_A large, well-muscled ninja stood to the side, watching the smaller, nimbler ninja work. "I still don't understand what we're doing, he complained. You built one of these in Whirlpool and now you're building one in Wave. It's pretty and all, but what will it do?"_

_Without stopping carving, Katasuya answered, "The doors will be linked by a wormhole through time and space." Though he wasn't looking, he seemed to sense his teammate's puzzlement. "A wormhole is like a tunnel. It will be a shortcut."_

_"For all this work, it better be a good shortcut."_

_"Goro, my friend, it will be instantaneous," Katasuya declared. _

_"We ran from home to here in four days. How can your tunnel be any faster?" Goro asked, obviously unconvinced. "Shouldn't we be excavating the tunnel? Will there be a train or sling shot or something."_

_For the first time in hours, Katsuya stopped working and stared hard at his obtuse comrade. "Can you perform a Suiton jutsu?"_

_"Yes." The ninja began to mime the seals to a water explosion as though to prove it._

_"Do you know why those hand seals make concussive waves of water?" Katasuya asked._

_The larger man shrugged. "It just does."_

_"No, there is a pattern to the energy in our bodies and our minds and we can use those seals to mold it. Energy exists everywhere, in everything, and if you understand the molding of it, you can do almost anything." Katasuya gazed at his fellow ninja, waiting for a spark of understanding. He patted the floor of the workroom. "I'm teaching the world a jutsu. We're going to mold the energy of the world."_

_"How will the world make hand signs?" Goro asked._

_"Argh! Forget it. It will just work, okay. Guard the door and stop distracting me." Katsuya resumed carving, and by the end of the day, his doorway stood in gleaming, intricate perfection._

* * *

**January 5, 1997 - Konoha**

Kakashi didn't question his Hokage when asked to perform a simple C-rank with Naruto, a newly promoted jounin. He didn't question why said student was on what amounted to suicide watch. If Minato-sensei wanted him to know more, he would tell him.

They hadn't made it a mile from the village when Naruto signaled a stop. Kakashi cocked his head to the side, maybe Naruto wanted to talk about the situation? He wouldn't deny that he was curious, but if Minato hadn't told him, Naruto probably wasn't supposed to either.

"I have a question, sensei. Why did you take a seal? A ninja can survive with one eye. Considering what can happen to people with seals. The drawbacks seem to outweigh the gain." Naruto plastered a flat smile on his face.

"You want to talk about my seal?" Kakashi asked. "Why? Has someone new taken a seal? You haven't taken a seal, have you?"

"I think you took the seal because Obito was having such a hard time. You thought it would help, didn't you?" Naruto's smile spit into a full grin and he laughed. "I bet it helped."

"Why I took a seal is my own business, no one else's." Everyone usually assumed he acquired his seal at the same time as Obito since their injuries occurred at roughly the same time, but Kakashi had only taken his seal later, not long after the Uchiha tried to execute his friend. Obito lost his clan, and Kakashi wanted to symbolically give him a new one. He had never discussed that motive with anyone, not Minato-sensei or Obito either. "What's wrong with you?" Kakashi asked. "Where is this coming from?"

"I just needed you to slow down a minute to let me in," Naruto said. "You belong to me now Hatake."

"Have you lost your mind?" Whatever else Kakashi might have said died in his throat as sharp pain shot through his brain originating from his sealed eye. The world went black for a long moment, and when Kakashi next opened his eyes, it was to a terrifying sight. Naruto stood over him, engulfed in cool blue energy. The energy coalesced into the form of a beast, some kind of canine. It's undulating tails, there must have been at least seven, curled around his limbs, caressing and squeezing him. The worst part were the beast's eyes, cold and sparking, their inhuman intelligence obscured Naruto's normally laughing visage. _What happened to you? _But Kakashi knew, his eyes could see. The pulsing seal over Naruto's heart couldn't be obscured by just a layer of clothes anymore.

"We have to find the door. You are going to do our C-rank while we look for it. When you finish, you will report in and try your best to cover for our absence. If and when you fail, you will slip away to return to us. You will protect us while we look for the door."

No way, Kakashi thought, even as he answered differently aloud. "Yes, as you instruct." I have to subdue him, Kakashi thought desperately, but in the next moment he was running away toward the capital with a message for the daimyo. His body was not his own. A piece of the thing wearing Naruto, one of its tails, had slid into his seal, and like a puppet on an incredibly long string, he was powerless to resist its commands.

* * *

Minato had never dreaded Kushina's return from a mission. Even if they were fighting, he always felt relief that she was home, alive and safe. She entered his office, straight-backed and solemn. Her exotic violet-blue eyes captured him and accused him silently. She placed an emigration form on his desk before settling in a chair opposite him. He didn't bother reading the document past the heading.

"What is this about?" Minato asked. Kushina's citizenship had always been somewhat debatable. She started as a permanent liaison between their native villages. After their marriage, no paperwork had been filed, no contracts signed. Even married to the Hokage, it could be argued that her loyalty was still stronger to Whirlpool. If she abandoned Konoha for Whirlpool, he couldn't even legally declare her a missing ninja. If she wanted to go home, she didn't need to file paperwork. Paperwork would just be a method to instigate a confrontation.

"That is an emigration notification. The immigration paperwork is already filed. You should hold onto that for a while. Whirlpool will know what it means. My father will move against us as soon as he realizes what's happened. Even if it's suicide for the village, he will feel obligated to move."

Minato actually read the document and his eyebrows shot up: emigration from Whirlpool, immigration to Konoha. Kushina was cutting ties with her home village. How could he have ever imagined that she might kill Naruto for taking a seal? "I assume you know what happened to Naruto. He'll appreciate the gesture when he gets home. I appreciate the gesture."

"You don't even understand the gesture yet." Kushina wiped at her suddenly teary eyes. "As an immigrant ninja, I forsake my vows to Whirlpool and my vows to the Uzumaki. I want to tell you everything. Together, we can save Naruto. Believe it. I have to believe it." Kushina pulled a scroll from her pocket and set it on Minato's desk. "Little orange Gamakichi hopped out of a puff of smoke with that from Naruto. He wanted me to know what happened even if it was technically treason to tell. He's such a sweet boy, and he really doesn't want to be responsible for harming anyone."

"He's fine Kushina. If that seal ever awakens, we'll deal with that then. It probably won't ever do anything but keep him alive."

"If Naruto didn't have Uzumaki chakra, you'd be right, but we have a special relationship with the healers. We brought them here and we've been struggling to control the situation ever since." Kushina paused, if her father knew what she was about to tell Minato, he would kill her.

"The Uzumaki created the Sealed Healers? If that's true, why isn't it common knowledge? Those healers are considered a valuable resource by most. You would think they'd want credit." At his wife admonishing stare Minato stopped talking and activated the privacy features of the Hokage's office. "Right, you're going to tell me everything if I'll shut up and let you."

"Almost ten generations ago Uzumaki Katasuya designed a special gate and seal system to allow instantaneous transportation across a long distance. He built the prototype between Whirlpool and our trading partner, Wave. By all accounts, he was quite the genius."

* * *

**October 3, 1785 - Whirlpool**

_A harried older man stood urgently trying to talk to a pile of junk. "The team entered the gate in Wave and came out in Whirlpool fine."_

_The pile of junk shifted and an annoyed redhead emerged. "Why are you bothering me then? That's how they're supposed to work, how they have worked since we established the connection."_

_"Katasuya-sama, you don't understand they came out fine and healthy, but they went in gravely injured. The ninja in question have strange seals on their flesh where their wounds were. The medics can't explain it. Can you?"_

_A spark of interest kindled, Katasuya shook his head. He cast aside the components he had been assembling and strode to the door. "Are they at the hospital? I want to see these seals."_

_Seeing the seals, did nothing but spark more questions for Katasuya. The seal traced under the skin, a part of the regenerated tissue, but he could detect no discernible tingle of chakra powering the strange construct. "Do you feel any different?" Katasuya asked the genin he had only moments before been prodding. _

_"I feel great, much better than before when my arm was broken and I had those burns," she said. "Was your gate supposed to heal us?"_

_"A happy accident," Katasuya replied. "I see no problems with this. We should experiment with the side effect. Perhaps the gate is able to detect the imperfection and correct it, but how and why? Which seal layer induced this? If we could repeat the phenomenon without use of the gate, it could save a lot of lives. We should send you back through the gate a couple of times, see if the healing sticks or if the seal on your body changes."_

_"Sure, no problem. I always wanted to be the guinea pig of a mad genius," the girl agreed. "I'm Megumi, by the way."_

_Katasuya rolled his eyes and gently bopped the genin on the head. "I know your name. You're Ami's kid. We're cousins."_

* * *

**January 5, 1997 - Konoha**

Kushina spoke with the monotonous certainty of a history professor, while Minato absorbed her recitation with rare interjections. "The gates were active and working beautifully for months before the seals started showing up on travelers. They were taken as a positive side effect at first, then some of the ninja started behaving oddly, abandoning the village, wandering and placing seals on other people. It took almost a year for Katasuya to diagnose the true pathophysiology. His wormhole tunneled through a world filled with monsters. Those monsters were placing the seals. Katasuya proposed that the monsters were placing the seals like we would a saddle on a horse. It gave them something to grip, to ride us."

At Minato's quirked eyebrow Kushina raised a hand to forestall his comments. "I don't expect you to just take my word for it." She drew a simple five stroke seal on her hand and infused it with chakra. "As long as it's active I can see them. Try it."

Taking a moment to study the seal, Minato determined that it would temporarily boost the visual acuity of anyone using it. "What will I see if I place this?"

"The truth."

Using Kushina's proffered brush he mimicked the seal perfectly, without taking his eyes off his wife or even blinking, he activated the seal. There was no pain, no moment of blankness. One moment he was alone with his wife; the next they were sharing the room with an undulating multi-tailed monster. It hovered near Kushina, it's tails caressing her. Minato rose shakily. "Maybe you should step away from it."

"It can't grip me. I don't have a seal. But it stalks me. You get enough Uzumaki together and we have systems to trap them, but alone we're like stray gazelles. They're waiting for a moment of weakness and they pounce. I don't know what they want, none of us do. I know that they destroyed a lot of lives when they ripped open a hole in the world in Wave."

"Our clan has kept the truth about them secret for all these generations to keep the other villages from destroying us. If the five Kage knew what we'd done, or what the sealed healers could do with us, they would never risk leaving us alive." Kushina shrugged. "I was foolish to think Naruto and I could live safely away from Whirlpool."

She stood and paced the office, the creature never leaving her side, always touching her. "They can influence some people without seals, like riding bareback, but they aren't really in control. Sasuke has always been susceptible. I never wanted them to be friends with the way the monsters could always push him, but Naruto is so stubborn."

Kushina gestured violently at the beast hovering over her. "The big ones like this can't ride anyone but a sealed Uzumaki. The wandering healers are all small fry with one or rarely two tails."

"Naruto has his own stalker, very similar to mine. Being younger and more vulnerable, he actually has had as many as a dozen of them on him at a time. I imagine they fought each other for the chance to ride him after the seal was placed."

Minato felt his heart clench, and he shook his head. "There's no way he could have avoided them, resisted them? He was still Naruto when we spoke today. He was fine. I would never have sent him on a mission of any rank if I thought he was compromised."

"He fooled you, love." Kushina gestured again at the monster by her side. "It fooled you."

Minato imagined a monster like the one clinging to his wife, possessing his son, and part of him wanted to shout at Kushina for not telling him everything years ago. Part of him wanted to blame her for making him operate in ignorance, but he knew how little good recriminations would do right now. "How do you propose we fix this? How do we save Naruto?"

"You're the genius. I rather hoped you'd have an idea. I can tell you how to kill him, but there has to be another way."

* * *

**January 18, 1786 - Whirlpool**

_Katasuya shoved a kunai through the brain stem of the thirteen year old genin, Megumi. He held the kunai in place so that the seal could not spread and repair the damage. He held the kunai in place until the writhing beast abandoned its host with a silent snarling scream. He felt no shame for killing her. She hadn't been the bright eyed girl from before her seal in some time. It wasn't his first execution since they had discovered the monsters, and God help him, it wouldn't be his last. _

_No Uzumaki with a seal could be permitted to live. The smaller monsters could do little, but the large ones quickly became dangerous. Not only could they manipulate energy in the world much like his transportation gates, they could control other sealed people._

_The situation had spiraled so far out of control before they understood the problem, that eliminating every sealed person was impossible; killing all sealed Uzumaki would have to suffice as a stop-gap measure. He had explained his theories to the village elders and hunter ninja were now scouring the elemental nations to complete the kill order. _

_Goro, Katasuya's oversized teammate, rolled the young genin over and pushed her now empty eyes closed. "What now?"_

_"We leave her body at the hospital," Katasuya replied without inflection._

_"I'll carry her," Goro offered. He hefted the girl as though she weighed nothing. He began humming a traditional battle hymn as they walked._

_Swiping at his __traitorously_ moist eyes, Katasuya tried to remain clinical and detached from the horror of what his creation had caused, though he had just killed his own cousin. It wasn't his fault. He couldn't have known. Goro smiled thinly at him, still humming and Katasuya began to sing, his voice unsteady. "I walk to war, my family beside me. I walk to war, my heart at home. I walk to war, my brother behind me. I walk to war, never alone."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

I wrote Kushina and Minato's conversation several ways. Attempt one was too hysterical. Attempt two was too clinical and boring. Attempt three utilizes a lot of flashbacks. It seemed the most balanced to me. I'm open to feedback on the concept as all the OC work typically will annoy some readers.

This was a subtle thing, but do you remember in the prologue when Sasuke starts to tell Naruto that he's gone too high, but he hesitates? That's the first time in the fic he was being influenced by a Healer. The second of note was when he hit Naruto with the chidori. Without the push, he would have pulled back too. Naruto's instinct to pull back wasn't the mistake. They both knew better. Sasuke was just trapped into the impulse by a malevolent spirit.

Anyhow, thanks for the kind reviews and encouragement.

Peace!


	18. Snare

**Chapter 15 - Snare**

Before his exile could begin, Sasuke's genin sensei arrived at his bedroom window. Even with the secrecy attached to Naruto's accident, he tensed in anticipation of a confrontation. This woman who had never liked him would know that he'd nearly killed her son and consented to have a seal placed on him. Somehow she would sense his transgression and she would try to kill him. Sasuke dropped back into a loose defensive stance, ready for the blows she might send his way.

"I know what you did." Kushina's chin jutted up and her arms were crossed over her chest. "I also know it wasn't entirely your fault. You're going to make up for your mistake, not in Suna, but with me. We are going on a top secret mission." She handed him a scroll with the hokage's seal.

Sasuke opened the scroll and read quietly to the end. "Is this for real? I was _pushed_?"

"With your consent, I'll place the seal that will let you see what pushed you." Kushina took out her brush and waited for Sasuke's jerky nod. Five simple strokes and an infusion of chakra opened his eyes. Kushina smirked at his horrified expression. "We should head to a more secure location to continue this conversation. Follow me Uchiha."

Sasuke felt like he was twelve again, chasing his sensei on their first real mission. This time he could see the energy beast that never left her side, and if the mission scroll could be believed, a similar beast never left Naruto's side either. The thought of that thing riding him, seizing on his worst, most dangerous impulses and forcing him to harm his best friend left him nauseated and incredibly angry.

Once they were safely ensconced behind the privacy seals of the Namikaze home, Kushina and Sasuke resumed their dialogue. "The scroll said one of these things is in Naruto. The seal let it in. How do we get it out?"

"We haven't figured that part out yet. First we have to capture him and contain him. Then we'll find a way to remove the hitchhiker." Kushina sucked in a deep breath, and exhaled in a slow steady stream. "If we don't capture him, he's going to rip a hole in the world and let something very destructive in. Every Uzumaki in his position has gone in search of a door. The one who succeeded in opening a door destroyed Wave."

Sasuke wasn't a politician, but a few facts felt quite clear to him. If the council, the daimyo, anyone in power realized that the disaster which burned wave was brewing and that killing one man would stop it from recurring, Naruto's death would be the order of the day. "Capture and contain, mission accepted. Do we have any idea where he is?"

"We have a tracker uniquely qualified to sense his location. Gamakichi, are you ready to show us the way?" Kushina asked.

A small orange toad eating a stick of pocky hopped forward. "Sure, let's go. No one possesses one of our summoners and gets away with it."

"One thing first." Kushina handed a bundle of paper seals to Sasuke. "When we find him, we need to get as many of these on him as we can. I don't know how many it will take to subdue him in his current state."

"Chakra suppression tags, low tech but usually effective. Are you sure this will work with one of those things boosting him?" Sasuke asked.

"I'm not sure of anything, but those tags are plan A. If they don't work, we'll have to come up with a plan B." Kushina opened her arms to the orange toad. "Come on little guy. It will be faster if I carry you."

* * *

The world flashed past. His legs moved; he spoke clearly and calmly. He even fought off a couple of two-bit bandits on the road. But Kakashi was a passenger to his body's journey. Not one of the twelve guardians sensed anything amiss the nor did the daimyo. His mission and journey appeared boring and routine to everyone he encountered.

Just outside Konoha's walls he summoned a shadow clone and henged it into a perfect Naruto. He and his clone passed through the village gates and signed in with the chuunin guards without incident. His clone made a show of asking if he could go find Sakura and disappeared to the rooftops. Kakashi strolled forward to the Hokage tower, inside railing and writhing and struggling to show some sign that things had gone horribly wrong.

All his struggling didn't even create a twitch on the calm, masked facade he presented to the world. Minato greeted him with a casual wave and Kakashi screamed inside his own mind.

Though he didn't show it, Minato could see the trail of blue energy streaming from Kakashi's sealed eye. "Welcome home. Where is Naruto? You were supposed to be watching him." Minato rose casually, waiting.

"Naruto is a jounin, not a three year old. He wanted to visit his girlfriend." Kakashi shrugged. "You want me to go get him?"

"Not necessary." Minato smiled at his student, certain that he would only get one good attempt at saving him. Minato might be a kage, but Kakashi was an elite jounin. He attacked and in one clean snatch, plucked Kakashi's sealed eye from its socket.

Kakashi's body went stiff and he screamed. Blood poured from his empty socket and he dropped to his knees.

The eye squirmed in his hand, the trail of energy persistent for a moment before the construct collapsed into nothing. Minato crouched in front of his student. Kakashi didn't fight him when he ripped a strip of cloth from his coat and made a crude bandage to press into his bleeding face. "Are you in there, Kakashi?"

"Sensei." Kakashi's remaining eye refocused, widening with horror. "Naruto isn't himself. He's possessed. He has a seal, and something is in it. It attacked me, controlled me through my sealed eye. It wanted me to stall, to keep anyone from discovering Naruto had gone missing. I haven't seen him in three days, sensei. It's looking for a door."

"Naruto took a seal and he is possessed; your report just confirms that. We've already sent a team to capture him. I have a toad tailing him. As the most junior signature on the toad contact, they can find him and are willing to obey me over him." Minato helped Kakashi to his feet. "We're keeping this quiet for now. I don't intend to brief the council or the daimyo until I know how to recover the situation."

"I want in on the capture. He's my student," Kakashi said.

"Sorry, you're going to the hospital. I'll read you in more thoroughly on this catastrophe when you aren't bleeding everywhere. For the record, I'm sorry I had to take your eye, but I'm very glad you woke up. Kushina and I weren't sure if you'd still be in there. It gives me hope that Naruto will be okay too."

* * *

Naruto moved slowly, tasting the world with each step. He called out a note and let the vibrations fill the air around him. The door was close. So close but always so far. He stepped forward again then dropped to his hands and knees. He dug at the earth, the wet lively smell teasing his senses.

Life teamed around him in the dirt, in the air, on the land. _We won't hurt them_, he thought, his host brushing closer to the surface. _We can do this without hurting them_.

Yes. He sang another note, long and clear. He crawled forward a few feet and paused, then placed his ear to the ground as though listening for a secret. He dug into the soil again, ripping through roots, digging until his fingers bled. Only when the pain had become severe did he stop manually clawing at the earth and began digging with a series of wind jutsu. So completely focused on his goal, the door he could nearly taste, Naruto never felt his enemies coming.

Paper seals appeared on his back and arms and face. Naruto spun toward his attackers, prepared to lash out, to destroy, but he staggered under the sudden power drain. He ripped at a paper tags, but his attackers replaced every seal he removed with two more, until he couldn't lift his hands to resist.

So close.

He sang out, hoping the door was close enough to hear and open.

Please.

Open.

Another tag was slapped to his chest, exactly over his healing seal, and Naruto lost his grip on consciousness.

Sasuke crouched over Naruto's unconscious form. Though he was out, the monster riding him remained conscious. It snapped at him and Kushina, though it couldn't touch them. "That went well," Sasuke said. "Now we just have to get that thing out of him."

Kushina tugged Naruto into her lap, examining his seal and the wounds to his hands. Carefully she cleaned his damaged fingers and bandaged them. Ignoring the beast curling around and in him, Kushina kissed her son on his brow. "Let's get him home."

* * *

Sasuke sat at Naruto's side, monitoring for signs of distress. Building a prison for him and his hitchhiker was taking time. Constant suppression of his chakra could be dangerous, but they had little choice until his cell could be properly prepared. Sasuke counted the steady rise and fall of his friend's chest, and wished more than anything that he could talk with Naruto again. There was a chance that his friend would never be free of the monster inside him and that the air could never be cleared between them.

"I'm sorry about the stupid kiss." Sasuke began speaking to his unconscious friend, hoping he could hear on some level. "I'm not sorry I made a move. You never know unless you try, but we should have acknowledged the stupid kiss, talked about it, and moved the Hell on. If we get you back, we have to talk about it and the accident too. It seems I'm easily influenced by these beasties that like to ride you, and they encouraged our training incident. I know that doesn't absolve me, but maybe you can forgive me a little easier knowing there were mitigating circumstances."

Sasuke counted his friend's respirations again. Were they a bit slower coming? "You have to fight, to help us win. Pinkie is bound to kill me if she finds out I killed you. For a civilian-born medic, she's scary. Not to even mention your parents; your father threatened to execute me."

Naruto took a breath and didn't take another. Sasuke counted seconds, at thirty he carefully peeled back one suppression tag, and Naruto took a breath. Exhaling, Sasuke smiled. "That's right keep sleeping and breathing."

Next door, Kushina labored over the room that would serve as her son's prison. The layered seal that covered the floor and walls and ceiling had to be activated in deliberately slow stages so as not to exhaust her chakra. As the sole Uzumaki in the village, only she could carve and only she could activate the construct. In Whirlpool, such a cell would be a group project, shared between at least four ninja.

In Whirlpool such prisons were used only to trap disembodied beasts that tried to enter their island. Naruto would already have a kunai in his neck back home.

When she had activated the last circle of embedded seal, Kushina wavered on her feet. She felt Minato at her elbow, holding her up. "It's done. We just need to place him inside before I close the array. It will feed on the energy of the monster, using its own emissions to power its prison. Back home, the ones we trapped eventually faded from our perception, possibly died."

"How long does it typically take for them to fade?" Minato asked.

"A few years," Kushina replied. "We would never be able to let him out of that room if the prison worked at removing it. He would be our boy in a bubble."

"It's a bit better than our boy in a grave or our boy who destroyed the world." Minato squeezed her shoulder. "I'll go get him."

* * *

Only a few days since his last _awakening_, Naruto opening his eyes on a new world again. The glowing characters of a prison seal greeted his eyes as the snarling despair of his passenger greeted his ears. They had been so close. He could smell it.

Naruto sat up slowly. He could feel the steady drain of a semi-permanent chakra suppression seal on his back. He wouldn't be able to perform even a basic bushin with that seal in place. In the doorway, his parents and Sasuke stood, watching him. Naruto hummed, trying to calm his passenger. From calm they might find a way forward. _We have what they want_, Naruto thought. _They want their son and their friend back. What might they give us to get that back? Let me negotiate. _

"The Uzumaki needs to leave. Her presence incenses him, and he will not permit negotiation until she is gone. We will talk to you," Naruto nodded to Minato.

His parents shared a long look before Kushina left, taking Sasuke with her. "They struggle with our concept of language except when they are inside a host." Naruto glared at his prison. "They can read our actions better. The Uzumaki started this and they've never even tried to help us. We will give you a chance to show us new actions. We want to go home."

"Whirlpool deconstructed the doors you came through. They don't exist anymore," Minato said. "I have no way to send you home."

"We can find home if you would just let us. We were close before you attacked us. We found a thin place between our worlds, a place we could go through."

"The last time you tried that, you made a mess in this world. If you judge by actions, explain your own. Why did you leave your home in the first place? Why did you and yours ever ride those people into our world?" Minato asked. "Was it idle curiosity? And why would you destroy Wave? Was it vengeance?"

"We were minding our own business. We were peacefully living! A terrible energy cut through our world killing thousands and trapping us in a void of tunnel. We fought to escape, but could find no exit. Those of us who didn't starve were forced to feed on our own dead to subsist. We tried to cling to the travelers that passed through but could find no purchase. One of our young discovered that we could fill imperfections in their bodies with our own energy of creation. We were able to ride those early seals out of the Hell of the tunnel and into the Hell of this world.

"We didn't starve here. Neither could we live. We can't eat or drink. We can't age or die. We can't touch this world and it cannot touch us." Naruto wrapped his arms around himself and hummed for several long moments, the creature calming visibly under his ministrations. "Wave was a mistake. We opened the wrong door. If you can help us find the right door, we will leave this world peacefully. There need not be any more death."

"I need to think about what you've said. May I have some time?" Naruto nodded curtly before Minato continued. "Is Naruto still in there? Is my son alive?"

"**We** give ourselves up in this union. I am Naruto and myself. There is no line between us. **We** are a suspension of existences so woven together that we're inextricable. His desire to trust you is strong enough to give me hope that you're different. But my hate of Uzumaki is amply sufficient to overpower any sentiment he holds for the woman who birthed him. He believes your world is worth protecting and that we can find a safe road home. Therefore **we** believe there is a safe road home. **We** believe you may help us find it."

Minato nodded slowly. He rested a hand on the wall of the prison. "Whatever part of you is Naruto, hear me son. We will find a way to save you. If it means we have to safely get these entities home, we'll do that."

Naruto smirked and drew his knees to his chest. "We don't trust language. We'll judge your actions."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Bam! Double post!

The pacing gets faster as we approach the ending. There should only be a couple of chapters left. I see no rabbit holes to distract from finding that ending. With the holidays coming up, I probably won't be posting next week. My goal is to have this concluded by January at the latest. Assuming the world doesn't end on 12-21-12, this story will be finished. :)

Peace!


	19. An Agony As Now

**Chapter 16 - An Agony. As Now.**

Alto, the Konoha Chuunin currently assigned to the perimeter patrol reporting to North gate, was the first to notice the coming battle. A lesser sentry might not have seen the first sign, a single flash of blond hair amongst the trees. After all, Konoha was at peace. It was natural for a routine sentry to perhaps not pay perfect, vigilant attention, but Alto wasn't a mercenary. Nothing more or less that a ninja, he did see and he did investigate. He quickly ascertained that the blond hair was attached to a civilian, a sealed healer, and she wasn't alone. Dozens of them, could be found now that he was looking. They had assembled in a loose perimeter around the village, gazing toward the walls, more like zombies than people. Silent and ominous, they stood vigil.

Alto waved a hand incredulously in front of the blond who had originally caught his eye. "All visitors to Konoha must register at the gate. You are outside the walls, but within the perimeter of our territory. Please dissemble and proceed to the nearest gate."

She failed to respond by expression or word. Focused over his shoulder at something he couldn't see, the healer seemed oblivious to his presence.

While there was no emergency code for approaching sealed healers as they weren't a political or military entity, Alto wasn't foolish enough to ignore the anomaly of their gathering. Sealed healers only gathered in large numbers before a major battle or disaster. He completed his circuit of the perimeter, counting their visitors as he ran. Once back at North gate he paused only long enough to share his finding with his partner. "We've got a large weird pattern of sealed healers around the village. I'm reporting it to the tower."

"Large and weird?" his partner asked. "Define large and weird before you leave me out here."

"I counted fifty seven of them loitering, marking Konoha's perimeter. It could mean we have a disaster coming, one big freaking disaster."

* * *

Minato took the chuunin's report about amassing sealed healers without notable affectation. He alerted the police force and mobilized two teams of chuunin to assist the gate guard monitoring the situation.

If the civilians or ninja could see what his wife's clever seal showed, they would be far more disturbed. Konoha's streets flowed with ephemeral beasts, some towering and grim-faced, their maws filled with razor teeth. Other smaller creatures flitted among the citizenry, over, around, and through them without notice. Minato didn't bother to inform his assistant before vanishing out the window. He circled toward the nearest wall and surveyed their guests with his own eyes.

Sealed civilians being ridden by the smaller version of the beast in his son, circled his village. Minato prided himself on not hating his enemies, but he hated those energy monsters. He wasn't naive enough to believe these things were just innocent victims that wanted a road home. Maybe they were, but it would be foolish to just take them at their word, not when the potential for destruction was so high.

As Hokage of Konoha, he had to proceed with every caution, but his son's life was tethered to this decision, and the secret of his family's crisis could be exposed at any time.

A secret in a hidden village was like a truffle on a hog farm. Everyone could smell it and rooted about for it. No matter how well it was hidden, eventually all secrets were found

His son had spent the last week sequestered in a makeshift prison in his home; it was a miracle the council wasn't already quizzing him.

Minato sprinted home.

Kakashi lurked at the perimeter of the property, loyally guarding his sensei's privacy. Through the front door and straight up the stairs, he stopped at the first layer of the prison. "My village is overrun with your kind. What are they doing here?"

"Hi Dad, shouldn't you be at work, stamping forms and pondering solutions to your pressing problem instead of asking me obvious questions? They're here for me, not that they can do anything about my imprisonment. The big ones look impressive but they can't ride anyone who isn't an Uzumaki. They'd burn anyone else up-we've tried. The young ones can't handle more than a civilian." Naruto smiled and shrugged in a perfect imitation of his normal mannerisms.

Minato didn't return the smile. Since their first conversation when it's voice had been distinct and alien, the beast had mimicked Naruto with disturbing perfection. That mimicry angered Minato on a primal level. How dare it smile like his son? How dare it speak in the familiar patterns Naruto would have used? Rather than lash out, Minato crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged back. "You can ask them to give my village some space. Their presence is an unwanted distraction."

"Sure, I'll try." Picking at the bandages on his fingers, Naruto sighed. "You know all this chakra suppression is hindering the healing in my fingers. They hurt, dad."

Clenching his jaw against his desire to shake the pretender, Minato gestured him over. He carefully reached over the outer rim of the imprisonment seal, the energy tingling over his skin, and unwrapped the faintly bloodstained bandages. "Will you allow Kushina to heal them? Of those who know your situation, she's the only one with the skill. My son will need his fingers when this is over."

"I know you can heal them." Naruto met his father's eyes and tugged his hands back. "I am your son, and you've healed my injuries before." Hiding his bloody fingers behind his back, Naruto sighed. "The passenger is riding low, barely participating in the conversation right now. He's tired. This room is exhausting for him. But if you bring mom up here, he'll freak out. He hates her too much."

As he could still see the monster twisting around his son, Minato couldn't help feeling that it was trying to manipulate him. "Let me discuss it with Kushina. I don't know how this prison will affect chakra-fed healing."

"You wouldn't want to accidently let me go, I suppose," Naruto sighed, his expression resigned. "You're just going to leave me in here forever. You're the Hokage and to do anything else would just be too risky. Right? And if you think about it, this is what you wanted for your son, stuck at home and safe from your enemies forever."

Minato didn't rise to the creature's bait, didn't pretend it was his son he was conversing with. "If you want, I can rewrap your fingers." Then, in what he could only assume was a purely petulant tantrum, Naruto moved away from his father and the promise of first aide. He drove his right hand into the containment circle, ignoring the pain, the tearing skin, the sizzling blood. When he pulled his hand back, it had been flayed nearly to the bone.

"Are you sure it's too risky to try chakra fueled healing?" Naruto asked. "I think we should risk it."

* * *

Downstairs in the kitchen, Minato found his wife, her head resting on her arms and a bowl of stone cold noodles in front of her. "Are you awake?"

"Yes," Kushina replied without moving. "I gave up sleep. How is he?"

"The same. His fingers weren't healing. The chakra suppression is getting in the way." Minato watched his wife's expression waver from worried to thoughtful and back in a circle. "I healed them and the containment held."

"We can't just leave him in there." Kushina replied. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know, but we're running out of time to figure this out. We have visitors, more than fifty sealed healers. The council, the clans, they already know something is afoot." Minato pulled Kushina's cold noodles over and began stirring them gently into a swirling pattern reminiscent of the Uzumaki clan symbol.

"I have an idea," Kushina said. "Before you shoot it down, I want you to listen to it entirely. If we take the creature's claim that they just want to go home at face value, then we just need a safe way to achieve that. We need a safe way to open one of their doors.

"Let me take him to Wave. It hasn't properly recovered from the first disastrous door opening. It would be out of Fire Country, with almost no civilian presence. If I help him, maybe we can send them home safely? " Kushina had recited her entire plan to the table, never lifting her head. "Before you tell me I'm crazy, ask yourself how long before that monster is shoving more that our son's hand through the containment perimeter. I set up the cage. I know what that thing does to my son, so don't bother trying to lie to me."

"Your plan requires that we assume positive intention from our enemy. We have to assume that they really just want to go home. Your plan also requires that I sacrifice my entire family, everyone I love, to the endeavor." Minato slid a hand under Kushina's chin, forcing her to look him in the eye. "We'll figure something else out."

"Love, we're out of time." Kushina rose gracefully . She shoved her hair back from her face and smiled a fragile, half-smile. "We have to try something. Do you have a better idea? They're gathering, Minato. Something is in the air. They aren't going to wait much longer. Don't you feel it?"

* * *

It was an old nightmare for Obito, the seal perpetually healing his body began to burn, to change under his skin, to attack him instead of help him. He wept and clawed at his skin, wanting to wake but unable to.

"Obito? What's wrong? Stop. You're hurting yourself!" Strong hands pinned his arms to his sides, stopped his frantic self-mutilation. "Obito?"

He could see Rin through his eye without a seal, Rin holding him down and crying. He was always alone in such dreams. Since when had Rin infiltrated them? He didn't want her to see him like this.

"Obito, can you hear me?" He struggled beneath her as the burning intensified.

"Burns," he hissed. The dream was never so painful before, so intense. Unable to stand the fire eating his body, Obito began to scream.

* * *

Normally healing seals were hard to see, pale white, almost invisible. Those bearing the seals often described the sensation from the construct as cool or even numbing. Those crisp, cool, aides to life changed within the walls of Konoha. Burning angry red-invisible energy beast burrowed into those seals without regard to the bearers ability to channel their consciousness. They burned the hosts even as they tried to control them, and the sealed of Konoha screamed.

Tearing at their own flesh, many of the sealed of Konoha died.

Tsunade faced her Hokage, blood still on her hands and face from the last patient she had been forced to restrain from self destruction. "The seals aren't failing. It's like they're overcharging. For the patients who can survive the procedure, we're cutting them off. The rest, we're restraining. Nothing we do seems to be alleviating their pain. Based on their epinephrine levels and other vitals, putting them in a coma is only stopping the screaming, not the agony."

"I don't know what else to do. If there was a sealed healer in Konoha, I'd ask for their help. This is their construct and no one has ever been able to reverse engineer one, much less adjust one. I want to send Shizune to find a healer to consult on what's happening here." Tsunade turned as her aides wrestled another screaming Konoha ninja into a bed with restraints. "We're going to start losing some of them to heart failure if the pain can't be controlled."

Minato didn't bother to mask the anger and horror he felt, watching a young man try to tear his own chest open. "I want to see Obito. Is he here?"

Tsunade nodded. She led Minato to his student's bed. Still but not peaceful, his pale face sweated even as he slumbered. Minato touched his student's chest and he could feel his heart pounding harshly against the red-hot webbing under his skin; strips of skin had been dug away from his sealed arm and face.

"Rin found him before he could do much damage. The ones who live alone have been the majority of the fatalities. I have a team checking on every known sealed ninja and civilian in the village." Tsunade stepped back. "With permission, I'll send Shizune out and get back to work."

"Shizune will be staying in the village." Minato brushed back Obito's hair, suddenly very clear on how the Uzumaki clan had come to the harsh decision to murder their own in an effort to contain the monsters they had unleashed. If he killed Naruto, this battle would end. But today was really just a skirmish in a long and bitter war. "I will handle it."

Using the hiraishin, Minato left the hospital and its horrors behind. He strode forward into his home and straight to the monster wearing his son. "You will stop this. "

"Or you'll kill me?" Naruto asked. "This room will accomplish my death, but even here, even suppressed and powerless, I can squeeze you. How is your student, Obito? Was he alive? I wonder, did you ask him, if it hurts to burn?"

"Strange, I thought you were innocent creatures who just wanted a way home? This isn't the act of an innocent being. This is cruelty and retribution." Minato glared, screams still echoing in his head, the image of Obito trapped in agony freshly imprinted on his mind. "Prove that you're willing to negotiate and desist. We have a tentative plan to safely locate your door home."

"Hypocrite. I'm trapped in a room that's slowing leaching away my life. We're trapped in this Hellish world against our will. What do you call that? I see no moral high ground. You want me to die in this room, but I won't die. Help us or I promise, this is just the beginning."

"I don't respond well to threats. As you're fond of pointing out, I am the Hokage and this village is my first priority. I will kill you and my son along with you if you make me." Minato drew a kunai, his face stony.

A look like genuine hurt flashed on Naruto's face. "Humans are such killers. Kill me then. It will just get worse. You and your village are the enemy now as far as they're concerned. And we have learned a few interesting tricks over the years."

Minato's fingers tightened on the kunai though his expression never flickered. "You're bluffing."

"So are you," Naruto returned. "I want to hear your plan and I want out of this room. You can leave the chakra suppression seal on my back in place. In return, I'll stop what's happening out there."

It felt remarkably like bargaining with a terrorist, but Minato nodded once. "We'll bargain, but not in Konoha, not in Fire country even." He set to deconstructing the outer ring of the prison without a word.

"You want to go somewhere that you wouldn't mind destroying? Is Iwa nice in the summertime?" Naruto asked.

"I was thinking more along the lines of Wave, there isn't much there left to destroy," Minato explained, desperately co-opting his wife's idea. "It hasn't yet recovered from the last time your people opened one of your doors."

Minato released the last of the containment seal and attacked his chakra-suppressed son. In a half dozen strokes, Naruto was on the ground with the tip of a kunai to the base of his skull. As Hokage, Minato knew that killing his son and then systematically excising all seals from his village would be the safe move, the right move. A Hokage had to put the village before his life and his family. "I will end this if you force me. If the attack on my sealed citizens hasn't stopped within the hour, negotiation will cease with prejudice. Agreed?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama. As you asked so nicely, consider it over now." Though Naruto's face was pressed into the floor, the energy beast faced Minato, it's expression ferocious and pleased. "When do we leave?"

* * *

**Author's Note:**

I hit a road bump in this section. As often happens when I'm forced to set a project aside, I lost the inspiration to push forward through the speed bumps. Finally found a way forward though. It's a short chapter, but it should segue smoothly into the next.

If you don't recognize the chapter title, it is taken from an Amiri Baraka poem. I was on page two when I realized how much that poem sums up the sealed healers, an inhuman thing wrapped in a human shell. I considered writing the poem out at the beginning of the chapter, but instead I put it in my profile.

With any luck, I'll be posting again next week.

Peace!


	20. Hope

**Chapter 17 - Hope**

Rin knew the moment that Obito's seal returned to normal. It faded back to white and his heart rate slowed, the monitor's frantic beeps settling into a restful rhythm. Tension drained out of her shoulders and she slumped forward. Delicately, she traced a hand over the wounds he had torn in his own flesh before she could restrain him. What would have happened to him if she hadn't been with him? Would he have kept digging like others had? One ninja had dug straight into his abdomen, ripping his innards out until blood loss drained the madness from his body with his life. Rin squeezed Obito's hand tighter, silently glad that he wouldn't wake until the drugs had been reversed.

What could she say to her strong, beautiful, too-vulnerable lover when he asked her what had happened?

Rin kissed Obito's still sweaty brow and slipped into the hall. Ears perked for the sound of Tsunade working, she systematically searched the floor until she found the blond, laboring over a young girl, mending flesh with skill few medics ever approached. When Tsunade was done, she turned to her support staff, dictating orders for the child's recovery. Rin waited patiently until the Sanin's attention was free before raising a hand in greeting.

"Rin, judging by your presence away from his bedside, Obito's seal must have calmed as well?" Tsunade asked. "Good. I'm going to start waking the ninja we put into comas in a few hours. We're waiting to ensure the crisis is really over. Hold onto your questions for a bit and walk with me."

Tsunade visited more than a dozen sealed ninja and civilians, checking vitals, talking to families, but Rin noticed, she never really told anyone anything about what had happened to the seals, expertly deflecting any questions asked. The others they visited were almost to a man, recent amputees of some sort. Arms and legs had been lopped off to remove the Healing Seals that had once saved their lives or livelihoods. Most seemed in shock, some were angry, while others just seemed sad. They were all grieving in their own way and time, Rin supposed. She tried not to feel jealous of the families that could just be done with their seals with a single surgery. There would be practically nothing left of Obito if they carved away all his sealed tissue.

Finally, there were no more stumps to check or family to update or charts to annotate. They stopped in Tsunade's office where the older blond slumped into her seat after waving vaguely for Rin to take the other. "I don't know," Tsunade said, cutting across whatever Rin was about to ask. "I don't know what happened to those seals or why. I don't know why it started or why it stopped. I don't know if it will happen again."

"I don't understand; how can you not know anything?" Rin asked, sounding petulant to her own ears. "You're Tsunade of the Sanin, the greatest medic ninja in Konoha's history. You have to fix this. I can't tell Obito that I just don't know what happened. When he wakes up, I have to have answers. That seal saved his life and ruined it, and he was just barely coming to terms with it all."

Tsunade let silence fill the room after Rin's declaration; she straightened from her weary slouch and nodded. "I understand you're in a bad position. You're afraid for him." Tsunade opened a top drawer and pulled an old medical scroll out without unrolling it. "You never met my mentor in medical jutsu, Rika-sensei. She died in the last war, but not before she taught me a few important things. She used to say, there are two main types of cases for a medic, injuries and illness we can heal and those we can't. Knowing the difference often requires making the attempt to heal them.

"Rika taught that those seals weren't science or even ninja arts. If they were, a dozen ninja would have reverse engineered them long ago. I accepted that concept, and treated those seals like an unknowable mystery for my entire career, but I am trying, Rin, to understand them now. Tell Obito, when he wakes, that we are trying."

* * *

A tiny war council in a kitchen, Minato presided at the head of the table, his wife to his right and Kakashi to his left. Naruto and his passenger waited just behind the door to the living room, excluded from the discussion by privacy seals. "Kakashi, for the safety and security of the village I have some orders that must be followed exactly after we're gone. I don't expect you to personally carry them out. Tsunade will handle that. You just need to deliver them to her."

"Sensei, should you be leaving the village right now? The council is convening tonight to address the attack we experienced today. The Hokage should be here. I can go with Kushina and... _it_. You can trust me." Kakashi's single eye showed nothing but confidence and devotion. If Minato asked it, he would do almost anything.

"It's not that I don't trust you, Kakashi. It's me who can't be trusted. For the past few days, I've betrayed Konoha in keeping this conflict secret, in keeping my son alive when he is a danger to the entire village. Konoha needs a Hokage that I can't be right now."

Minato handed an intricately sealed scroll to Kakashi, his eyes hard. "It's all in there for her. Tsunade is my chosen successor, and I hope she accepts. She's the medic Sanin, the ideal leader to combat these so called Healers, I think. I would discuss it with her personally, but I can't risk what may happen to Naruto once this secret is out. We have to be gone before then."

"By leaving ahead of the transfer of power, you won't be a missing ninja, quite." Kakashi turned the scroll over in his hands. "We will protect Konoha for you while you're gone."

"I know you will." Minato exchanged a look with Kushina. "It's best that you travel ahead, love. Your presence will just make him harder to contain." She nodded, oddly serene now that they had committed to a course of action. The two kissed, a brief touching of lips, perfectly intimate and graceful. Once she was gone, Minato opened the door with Naruto waiting behind it. "Are you ready to travel?"

Naruto grinned and scratched at his back comically. "I'll be pretty slow with this chakra suppression seal in place. You sure we can't just remove it now?"

Minato kept his anger perfectly in check, leaking not an iota of killing intent at the monster over-acting, aping his son's mannerisms. Kakashi didn't manage quite so much control, energy rolling off him in a single scorching wave. Minato squeezed Kakashi's shoulder, preventing him from doing anything rash. "Don't worry, we'll be riding toads most of the way," Minato answered flatly. "Goodbye Kakashi."

"I'll see you soon, sensei." He took a long moment to stare at Naruto. "If you can hear me in there Naruto, I'll see you soon too."

* * *

It wasn't his first time waking up to the bright white walls and antiseptic smell of an infirmary, but Obito found this time his most pleasant. Rin, her short black hair fanned around her face, had curled onto his bed beside him, sleeping with her head on his chest, the gentlest feminine snores fluttering his hospital gown. He didn't remember why he landed in the hospital, but he felt fine right now, better than fine.

Obito kissed her forehead, her cheeks, the tips of her ears. He placed gentle kisses until the soft snores stopped and a pair of somber brown eyes met his own. "Good morning," he offered, her serious expression worrying him. Had he been hurt badly? "If you don't smile soon, I'm going to think something bad happened."

"Something bad did happen." Rin sighed at Obito's blank stare. "It's not uncommon to experience short term amnesia from ketamine. Do you remember why you're here at all?"

"No. What happened? What's ketamine?" Obito asked. "I feel fine."

Rin hesitated to answer, hesitated to banish the loving contented smile she had seen on his face earlier, but they couldn't hide from this and his seal was not exactly amenable to amputation. "Tsunade put you into a coma with ketamine. Your seal, every seal in the village turned on the bearers. We cut off the ones that could be could be cut off, and we put everyone one else out, trying to stop their pain. I'm glad you don't remember because it seemed pretty horrible."

Obito looked down at his sealed hand, flexing it experimentally. "I feel fine."

Rin gracefully twisted so that she had him straddled, shifting his focus from melancholy contemplation of the seal in his flesh, to her physical proximity. "That's because you are fine for now. We don't know what happened or why, but everyone, and I mean everyone, is working on figuring it out." Rin linked their hands together, entwining their fingers. "In the meantime, you have a choice, indefinite leave or an indefinite D-rank. The medics need seals to work on. I'm a senior medic and I've requested you personally. We will determine what powers these seals. We will learn to make them, deconstruct them, and protect them from attack. Nothing is ever going to hurt you like that again. Do you accept this mission?"

"Put to me so appealingly, how could I refuse?" Obito asked.

* * *

Tsunade said nothing as she read the intel in the scroll Kakashi delivered to her. She read the material from top to bottom twice before rolling the document up and rising. She leveled Kakashi with a hard stare. "What is he going to do if I turn this down?"

"I guess that depends on who becomes the Godaime Hokage instead. There won't be a shortage of candidates," Kakashi replied practically. "I imagine Danzo would declare sensei a missing ninja and put him in the bingo book. I doubt Jiraiya would take the job. Orochimaru might give him a chance to solve this situation his own way. You know him better than I do though."

"Stop, okay. I'm taking the job, mainly to control the situation." Tsunade grimaced and started walking rapidly. "The council is going to be unreasonable. I better get there before they realize the village is missing three ninja, including the fourth Hokage."

"I have other orders," Kakashi started, unsure how complete Minato's information relay to Tsunade had been. "With your permission, I'll get started."

"He gave me an outline of your mission, but don't tell me your orders, Kakashi. If he didn't put it in here, it's best that I don't know. Just go. And if your mission involves seeing the blond-headed menace, you tell your sensei that he better survive this war, because he owes me for this little favor of his and I plan to collect."

At the Hokage tower, Homura and Koharu, were already waiting, their wizened visages arranged in stern disapproving lines. Tsunade approached the councilors, her expression calm. "Honored elders. I have a communication from the Hokage. Perhaps we should retire to the privacy of his office to peruse it?"

"Does this communication mention where he is? None of our messengers have been able to find him," Koharu snapped imperiously.

Tsunade gestured to the open office door, unwilling to speak without more privacy. Once they were securely inside, Tsunade handed over a portion of Minato's communication, the portion she deemed necessary for them to know. "The sealed healers declared war on this village earlier today. The Hokage has taken measures to secure the village and attempt to negotiate a cease fire. In the event that his diplomatic efforts fail, we are going to prepare for war. Our allies in Whirlpool are well equipped to ward against sealed healers as they have been in a dispute with them for some time. Minato sent an emissary to Whirlpool before departing." Tsunade carefully omitted the fact that the emissary was Kakashi not Kushina as the councilors would assume.

"The Hokage can't just leave the village at a time of war, even if it isn't with another ninja village!" Koharu declared. "This behavior is very irregular."

Homura roughly passed the scroll to her counterpart. "It seems the Hokage made arrangements in case his efforts are in vain. He named his successor. We are in the presence of the Godaime Hokage. I can't quite believe you agreed to officially take the job, Tsunade."

"I'm full of surprises," Tsunade replied. "Now until our emissary to wave returns, you will understand if I return to the hospital. There are patients in need of care."

* * *

Two blondes, alike in stature and coloring, perched atop a fantastically large, red and gold toad. The casual observer would assume two things, first that these were ninja and second that they were family. A few short years ago, Minato would have done anything to avoid that association with his son because of the danger it involved. Back then he would never have believed that Kushina was the one holding the most dangerous secrets, that his son's relation to his mother would be the most threatening to his survival. Minato might have laughed at the juxtaposition if they weren't caught in such a morass.

At his side, Naruto clung to the toad easily, molding the small amount of chakra the suppression seal trickled through to strengthen his grip. "There is a thin place near here. I can feel it," Naruto said longingly.

"Tell me what a thin place is," Minato said, keeping his eyes on the path ahead as the toad hopped forward, meters at a time.

"The gap between worlds is uneven, some places think, others thin. **We** can feel home at the thin places, and with Uzumaki hands, I'll be able to peel back the layers and open a door back home. It will be glorious."

Uzumaki hands, Minato thought. Their lives would be so much simpler if Naruto had looked like his mother and inherited his father's chakra instead of the other way around. "I know all my son is to you, is a convenient pair of hands, but do you understand why he is more to me and his mother? Do you have families, loved ones, children?" Minato looked at the energy beast, hoping that it would express a glimmer of empathy.

"**We** don't exist until we do. Then **we** fade in time. Entropy-death comes for everyone. I have no mother or father, just my spark." The energy creature faced him, though Naruto's eyes remained focused on the road ahead. "**We** do form associations from time to time. I usually eat my associates when I'm done with them, but I promise not to eat your son. Unless you betray us, then I will burn him alive."

Minato nodded coolly. "There is one thing I don't understand. Why have you and yours gone on healing humans for all this time. It seems an overly benevolent act for a creature that lives only for its own 'spark' as you put it. Was it all really just to get a chance at sealing an Uzumaki?"

The energy creature grinned toothily. "**We** might have achieved some mean sustenance from our seals. The spark must be stoked. A neat symbiosis, those clever seals-our presence charges the seals, and the seals allow us to feed on small bits of the hosts' chakra."

"And what of the seals when you're all gone. Will they persist in your absence?" Minato asked, knowing the answer whether the beast admitted it or not. "I might as well kill my son now and end this threat."

His eyes widened and Naruto shrank back. "The seals will fade but it will take years. The sealed will have years."

"A convenient explanation that can't be tested," Minato said, grimly. "Do your kind feel hope?"

"Hope?" Naruto shook his head, poised to jump from the moving toad.

"My hope lives with my son and the chance that he can survive this. Hope despite logic is madness, but I choose to hope anyway. It's why I can't be Hokage, not until this madness is done, one way or another."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

A little later than planned, but the chapter is done. Next chapter could be a conclusion, don't know. It isn't started at all, well except for the title. It will probably be at least 2 weeks before another posting. Questions and comments are always welcome. If you notice anything I've flubbed, let me know. The chapter is not betaed. (For shame! I know.)

Peace!


	21. Madness

**Chapter 18 - Madness**

The landscape of Wave hadn't recovered from the cataclysm of a single open door. Grass did not grow in the blacked earth; trees did not dot the horizon. No birds sang or even insects hummed. The strange fire that scorched the land also poisoned it-unlike a normal fire that primed the earth for regrowth.

As out of place as oranges in an apple cart, two colorful shinobi moved across the barren landscape, the younger scanning the emptiness avidly. Slowly, careful to signal his intent to his guardian, the young blond crouched down, flexing his fingers over the cool, black soil. The tension between the two tightened into a silence interrupted only by the hypnotic splashing of an unseen retreating tide.

"It's here," Naruto said, his expression serene. "We'll need to wait for the others. I've sent for them."

In the space between heartbeats, sealed men and women began to appear, small, disembodied energy creatures clinging to them. Other energy beasts with no human to ride flooded through the clearing, a silent torpid river. For those who could see, the barren land of Wave was reborn, a world of monsters.

"Their method of instantaneous transport is very similar to my Hirashin," Minato said.

"You use your chakra infused rite to mark your path. We have left seals in every corner of this world to mark ours. There is nowhere in this world we can't be in an instant. But now isn't time for talking about time-space jutsus. It's time to talk about the suppression seal on my back and opening this door."

"Teach me to open the door," Minato offered. "Teach me to open and close it."

Naruto stood and shook his head once. He stripped his top off, presented his handsomely muscled back and the stark, black suppression seal on his skin. "We came here to settle this. Let me try and do this my way. If I can't contain it, you have your _fail safe_ in place. Don't make this difficult, and I'll do my best to make sure, you have a son when it's over." Naruto raised a single finger halting any response. "I couldn't teach you if I wanted to. You don't have the right chakra."

"Fine, I can't open the door, but what fail safe?" Minato asked without inflection. "It's just you and me. What time have I had to set up a fail safe?"

"I'm not stupid. You didn't pick Wave only because it is already spoiled. We've known about this trap for many years. Our old enemies always assumed we would return here if we ever joined with another Uzumaki and they prepared for the eventuality. Your Uzumaki bride is waiting in the wings in case the plan goes awry, damage control." Naruto turned toward his father, the energy beast coiled tight and barely moving. "I know you don't believe me, us, but your son is here too and we won't let it out again. Let us go back where we belong."

Minato crossed his arms and shook his head minutely. "First we get one thing straight. You know about the seal on this land, but it would be a mistake to assume that you know what I've done in its entirety. This is your first real dealing with Konoha. If you betray us in any way, I've set things in motion that will end you and yours. Unlike your long skirmish with Whirlpool, you will find that my village finishes what we start. You can ask anyone in Iwa if you don't believe me."

Minato slipped a hand under his son's chin. With a nullifying burst of chakra, he cancelled the Uzumaki seal which allowed him to see the energy beasts for a moment. If this was his last look, he wanted to see his son's face without a monster curling about it. "I love you son."

* * *

Though she wasn't close, Kushina couldn't fail to see her husband and son in the distance. As dead and flat as Wave remained, their sunshine colored hair was the brightest thing for miles around. She couldn't hear their conversation, but she knew the script. One way or another, they were opening a door.

So many things could go wrong. This attempt to save one young man could damage the very fabric of the world. If her father could see what they were doing right now, he would try to stop them. She swore to her father that she would never let something like this happen, not through her or through her inaction. Her father trusted her, trusted her so completely that he let her stay with her love. He let her have her child and manage the risks herself.

Was it a lie if you meant it at the time?

Kushina traced a finger along one of the trigger lines to the seal threaded through the soil of Wave. The innovator who released the energy beasts, Uzumaki Katasuya, had etched the trap himself. All his innovations later in life involved containment and mitigation of his great mistake. According to the histories, Katasuya had executed family, friends, even children to contain his folly.

His descendents had scampered to follow his lead, containing, hiding, mitigating. Her father would call her actions today reckless and weak. He would call her a liar for breaking her oath.

She had never felt more conflicted in her life, guilty but certain that this was the right thing, the only thing. They had to try to save their son and the containment seal was a reasonable fail safe. If it cost every drop of chakra in her coils and her life to activate it? Her family would already be gone if she needed the containment, and she wouldn't want to stay behind without them.

Gasping involuntarily, Kushina saw what had to be the opening door. A fissure appeared in the sky, dull red energy leaking through it in languid sparkling drops. In a rush, the menagerie of insubstantial beasts flowed into the gap. Through the mad rush of it, Kushina could no longer see her husband or her son, lost in the sea of monsters.

* * *

The red ichor draining sullenly from the sky, pooled into angry glowing rivers around the cracked open door. Minato moved carefully amongst the chaos, avoiding the puddles that radiated ominous energy. He kept his eyes on his son; Naruto's hands, guided by intangible claws, held the door open for the smaller beasts' escape. The radiant red fluid burned at his son's flesh, but the rider healed the wounds so quickly it was almost imperceptible.

The sealed healers lay about him like discarded puppets, some of them already burned and dead in the energy puddles, their riders long gone. A few remained standing, their riders still clinging. Minato frowned at those malingerers, uncertain what they were playing at.

When the small beasts were gone, all but the handful still riding healers, Naruto ripped the hole wider, allowing the larger ones through. Naruto screamed as a blue and black claw poked through from the other side. Shoving it's way past the fleeing energy beasts, a far more tangible creature stepped into the world. Like a monstrously deformed cat, the beast crouched low, lapping at a pool of red liquid with its twin heads. The creature's twin tails curled toward the sky like smoke, dissipating into nothing.

Its thirst sated, the cat crouched as though preparing to bound away, but the beast inside Naruto, leapt upon it, ripping at it with canine teeth and casting it back through the door. Naruto and his rider, now only connected by a single tail of energy worked in seamless tandem; the beast guarding the door that Naruto held open.

Minato couldn't say how long the door had stood open, but it seemed like an eternity until the only energy beasts remaining were a handful riding healers and Naruto's own rider. "What are you waiting for," Minato demanded of the nearest lingering healer. "He's holding the door for you."

"We aren't going," the healer replied. "We didn't know until we saw the door, but that isn't our home anymore. He isn't waiting for us. He is trying to leave some of your son behind."

The beast had gripped the tail still connected to Naruto, its clawed hands squeezing the appendage tight. The tail shifted light spectrums from red to purple to almost blue. Viciously it ripped the discolored tail off with a bite of its razor teeth, and it released the tail so that it flowed back into Naruto. The beast turned it's inhuman visage to Minato and it spared him a broad, brutal grin before it disappeared from the world. In seconds, the door was closed and Naruto was falling, completely unconscious.

Only Minato's lightning reflexes saved his son from an abrupt death in one of the lingering red puddles. For the first time in weeks, his son slept without a monster riding pillion, but Minato felt no relief. Unsure of what he had seen, or what it meant, Minato staggered toward the perimeter where Kushina waited, his nearly grown son thrown over a shoulder. He took note that the last healers, four of them, followed him from the field and its scattering of corpses.

He felt his wife before seeing her, the familiar chakra signature, more jagged with worry, but still his Kushina. She crouched with her hands in the dirt, indubitably waiting for any signal that containment was needed, not trusting that the door was really closed or that the energy beasts were gone, not until Minato told her to relax.

"Why are there still sealed healers? Didn't it work?" Kushina asked, not shifting her position. "Is Naruto okay?"

"He's alive," Minato replied, omitting his confusion about what the beast leaving a tail behind might mean. He shifted his burden so that Naruto was lying on the ground near his mother. "As for these four, they decided to stay behind. I'm afraid they haven't bother to explain that decision."

Finally, Kushina moved, pulling her son's head onto her lap. She examined him for wounds, but found no flaws, not even a bruise on his skin. "Why isn't he awake? He isn't chakra exhausted. He isn't wounded."

"He's had a shock. I doubt his soul has settled on who he is," a brown-eyed healer answered, calmly. "You have always called us riders, but we don't ride. We consume the essential spark that is our meal and they become part of us. You all are so completely alien from what we were that any fusion between us causes a kind of indigestion, a short period of shock in which equilibrium is reached.

"In our own world, we don't assemble in communities or write laws. We have no language or family. What we consume becomes a part of us and paradoxically, we become what we consume. I consumed six humans over my time in this plane, and they have become me, but I find that now I'm them as well and returning to a world with only energy and survival and consumption, is no longer appealing.

"Naruto is only alive because the large predator did not want to become more like a human, and he tried to expunge as much of him as he could, going so far as to sacrifice a large fraction of his own energy and life in a radical amputation."

"It said it would try to leave our son before it left," Minato said. The beast's malicious grin replayed in his memory, and Minato couldn't help wondering if Naruto would ever really be the boy they had raised again.

"You may call me, Sumire," the spokesperson for the small group of Healers announced. "We would like to request asylum in Konoha. Now that we are so few, there is nothing to stop Whirlpool from locating us and trapping us one at a time. It will take all our combined efforts, but we can sustain the seals in existence in the world, but it won't be possible to place more. If Whirlpool starts neutralizing us, we will start to lose seals and lives."

Minato could see the frown creasing his wife's brow, but he wouldn't reject their request over a personal vendetta, not when their son was dependent on one of the jeopardized seals. "I can bring your request to the council and the sitting Hokage, but it isn't my decision today."

Sparing only a glance for the refugees, Minato dropped to a knee beside his wife and son, preparing to scoop him up again to travel home, but a pair of familiar, bright blue eyes were open and staring at him. Naruto's mouth opened and a single word emerged.

"Hello."

* * *

Author's Note:

That's the last chapter. Epilogue to go. I know it took forever, but I struggle with endings. The closer I get to an ending the harder it gets to write. Hope you don't hate it. Merry Christmas!


	22. Epilogue: Cryptography

**Epilogue: Cryptography**

An indefinite diplomatic assignment in Suna hadn't been part of Sasuke's long term career plan. Granted, when he and Naruto plotted out their course to achieve Jounin, they hadn't gone into great detail on what would come next. Would they take on some Genin to train or just keep on with the status quo, working and training and improving. Their plan had worked, both had been awarded the rank of Jounin, but that achievement would always be tainted by what followed.

Kushina-sensei had in essence absolved him of the almost-murder of his best friend. She blamed the energy monsters; she explained how they could push him toward mistakes like thrusting a Chidori through Naruto's chest. Her absolution while kind, didn't resolve his guilt.

His former Sensei had actually seen him off at the gate the day of his departure. She had wished him well and given a priceless assurance. "He survived. They're gone."

Now six months into his exile in this land of sand and scorching sun, Sasuke was willing to admit to himself that he was homesick for Konoha and her trees, for his insane brother, and mostly for his best friend. Kushina's vague assurance aside, Sasuke had been given no opportunity to check on Naruto, to say goodbye and apologize properly. Several times he started letters, but could never find the words to finish.

When an encrypted scroll arrived for him, Sasuke assumed it was another update from his brother, but the Uchiha decryption key didn't translate the letter. He tried the standard academy-taught Konoha decryption next to no avail. He frowned at the letter, confused. He wasn't privy to any other military encryptions. Then it hit him that he knew one other protocol, the Anti-Fangirl Unbeatable Encryption Code. Naruto named it, but in his defense, he was seven at the time.

_Dear Sasuke,_

_I would ask you how things are in Suna, but I've been there. Things are hot and dry and with your complexion, probably pretty sunburned. If you come home with freckles, I will be obliged to mock you. Your mission is indefinite though. Who knows when you're coming home. _

_To catch you up on some village news, there was an inter-village incident between Konoha and Whirlpool. Officially the scandal was over mother's emigration, but it was really about the seal and the healers and the door we opened to get rid of them. The Uzumaki clan kicked me and my mom out when it was all said and done, so she's going by Namikaze now._

_It doesn't change much, but her father wouldn't acknowledge her existence or mine. At least they didn't put us in their bingo book. _

_You know, maybe it's better that you're there. I've tried to talk to my parents, to Kakashi, even to Sakura, but the words don't come. Writing this down is easier, smoother, and you know what happened to me. You know who I was before. _

_Things aren't the same since the seal and the door. _

_I was always aware, even when I wasn't very me. When it left, it took bits of me and left bits of itself behind. I feel too large for my skin. At night, I dream of flying. At night I can breathe. Every second I'm awake, it's suffocating and I don't know why._

_I don't know if I'm me._

_It scares me, this feeling that I don't belong. What if it took the important bits of me, my soul? _

_My parents seem worried. They know I'm not settled or well. _

_How do I reassure them? _

_How do I keep breathing when it's so hard?_

_Write back when you can. _

_Your friend,_

_Naruto_

Sasuke folded the letter twice and considered abandoning his mission to return home. Naruto had survived, but he was obviously struggling in the aftermath of his experience. If it was easier for him to write out what he needed to say, maybe an exchange of letters would be better than a face to face friend? Sasuke had no doubt that his friend's parents had provided better than adequate post traumatic support, the best a ninja village could supply. They couldn't supply a best friend.

Pulling out a blank scroll, Sasuke carefully composed his reply.

_Dear Naruto,_

_Or should I say dobe? Don't concern yourself with my complexion. I've been this shade of pale my entire life and know how to apply adequate amounts of sunscreen. _

_As for your excommunication from the Uzumaki clan, it's their loss, though I know it must have hurt your mother. While my clan doesn't always make my life easier, it would hurt unimaginably to be cast out from them. _

_I think you know the answer to your last few questions, but I'll remind you anyway. You keep breathing by sucking air in and out until it doesn't seem hard anymore. You won't ever be the person you were before I almost killed you. Every day we live we are changing, and you fast forwarded through that with what happened. Just because you're changed doesn't mean you don't belong. _

_Keep breathing. Give it time. Talk to the people who love you. _

_I never got a chance to apologize properly for the accident that started all this. I still don't know how. You keep breathing and I'll do the same and maybe we'll both figure out a way forward._

_Always your friend,_

_Sasuke_

It was frustrating, having to wait for the messenger nin to head back to Konoha with his letter, but Sasuke couldn't justify sending it urgently. Calculating in his head, for a non-urgent postal exchange carried by the regular messenger circuit, he and Naruto would manage one or two letters a month at best.

Sasuke headed for a public training ground, hoping to find a fight to keep him busy for a few hours. The fight he found was with a puppeteer named Kankuro.

* * *

**Three months later:**

"Another letter, Uchiha? Are you corresponding with a boyfriend or girlfriend back home?" Kankuro asked, smirking at his frequent sparring partner.

Sasuke sighed and unrolled his scroll. "The last two letters were from my brother and this one is from a friend. There isn't a special friend of any gender waiting for me back in Konoha."

"I won't be jealous then," Kankaro replied with an unreadable expression. "I guess we're done for today. I'll be at training ground twelve tomorrow with my sister. You're welcome to join us, as usual."

"Tomorrow then." Sasuke raised a hand to his new friend, then settled in to read his letter. His correspondence with Naruto had been steady and his friend seemed to be making progress dealing with what had happened to him, but he still ended every letter with a comment about his breath, and difficulty breathing. Sasuke had begun to suspect that whatever the energy creature had left behind would never be satisfied in a human body, that it would always swell against the binding flesh, squeezing at his friend's chest.

_Dear Sasuke,_

_I'm glad to hear that you're making new friends. Did you see Kankuro's chunin exam? His puppets are very powerful. Watch yourself. _

_My father finally resumed his position as Hokage. I think Tsunade might have made him. She never really wanted the job, and there isn't really anything wrong with me that can be fixed. His babysitting is pointless. I've been taking missions again, nothing solo, but my parents have calmed down some._

_Something pretty amazing happened a few days ago. The Pinkie was home, and I had been listening to her rant about her mission and her mentor. When she stopped to take a breath, I kissed her and suddenly my skin fit again. I could breathe, really breathe. Nothing was pressing in on me._

_I think I might love her, but I haven't told her. What if she doesn't feel the same?_

_For now, I'm going to keep kissing her as often as possible. She makes me feel like I fit inside my life again._

_Will your diplomatic mission (punishment) be over soon? They can't keep you in Suna forever. You're an Uchiha. Your father could probably throw his weight around and make them send you home. You should ask him to try._

_Your friend,_

_Naruto_

No twinge of anger or jealousy sparked in Sasuke at Naruto's comments about Sakura. If he had any doubt that he was over his romantic fancy toward his friend, this letter helped him put that to rest. Naruto had found his breath. It was down the Pinkie's throat apparently, but to each their own.

Rather than write a response, Sasuke put Naruto's letter away. He had been given orders to come home by his brother a day earlier and would be departing at the end of the week. He would be back in Konoha before a letter could make the circuit. He would congratulate Naruto in person and be there to cheer him through his romantic endeavor with his Pink-tinted love.

Sasuke was going to miss some of the people he had met in Suna, particularly his sparring partner. Unless he missed his guess entirely, (and after his kiss debacle with Naruto, that was always possible) Kankaro was interested in the foreigner residing in his village for more than taijutsu practice. With his imminent departure, he would likely never find out for sure.

Sasuke couldn't quite work up much distress over the missed opportunity; the puppeteer was a little flamboyant for his taste.

* * *

**Author's note:**

That is officially the end. There is potential for some one-shots in this universe, but I've no intention of writing them at the moment. Thank you very much to everyone who read and reviewed. The support was encouraging and without it the story never would have been finished. I'm not good about responding individually, but each review meant a lot, especially the ones with tips and corrections.

Happy reading and writing, folks!

(I get to mark a fic COMPLETE! Woo Hoo!)


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